Benedict Cumberbatch To Produce And Star In Showtime Limited Series ‘Melrose’

Today, Showtime Networks announced the pickup of the five-part limited series MELROSE, starring and executive produced by Oscar® nominee and Emmy® winner Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game, Sherlock). BAFTA Award nominee David Nicholls (Far From the Madding Crowd, One Day) is writing all five episodes of the television adaptation. Based on the acclaimed Patrick Melrose series of semi-autobiographical novels written by Edward St. Aubyn, MELROSE hilariously skewers the upper class as it tracks the protagonist’s harrowing odyssey from a deeply traumatic childhood through adult substance abuse and, ultimately, toward recovery. A co-production between SHOWTIME and Sky Atlantic, the limited series will begin shooting in New York, London and the South of France in August. The announcement was made today by David Nevins, President and CEO, Showtime Networks Inc.

In a tour de force role, Cumberbatch will play Melrose, an aristocratic and outrageously funny playboy who struggles to overcome the damage inflicted by a horribly abusive father and the mother who tacitly condoned the behavior. Asked in 2013 if he could play any literary character ever, Cumberbatch shared in a Reddit Q&A that it would be Patrick Melrose. The limited series will be a true television saga, both gripping and humorous from Nicholls’ adaptation, with a dramatic sweep that encompasses the South of France in the 1960s, New York in the 1980s and Britain in the early 2000’s. MELROSE will devote one hour to each of the five novels, with each episode set over the course of a few intense days in the life of the protagonist.

“We are delighted to be part of this incredible series,” said Benedict Cumberbatch and Adam Ackland. “We have been huge fans of these books for many years and David Nicholls adaptations are extraordinary.”