Adapted by Stephen Butchard from Ian McEwan’s Whitbread Prize winning novel, The Child In Time is a lyrical and heartbreaking exploration of love, loss and the power of things unseen.
Stephen Lewis, a successful writer of children’s books, is confronted with the unthinkable: he loses his only child, four year-old Kate, in a supermarket.
In one horrifying moment that replays itself over the years that follow, Stephen realises that his daughter is gone. With tenderness and insight, the drama explores a marriage devastated by the loss of a child. Kate’s absence sets Stephen and his wife, Julie, on diverging paths as both struggle with an all-consuming grief. With the passage of time, a balance of sorts returns, until hope surfaces and triumphs unexpectedly.
Starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen, Kelly Macdonald as Julie, Stephen Campbell Moore as Charles and Saskia Reeves as Thelma.
The Child In Time airs on Sunday 24 September 2017 from 9.00pm-10.30pm on BBC One.