Patrick Melrose (Sky Atlantic – Showtime 2018, Benedict Cumberbatch)

Based on the acclaimed Patrick Melrose series of semi-autobiographical novels written by Edward St. Aubyn, Patrick 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.

With each episode devoted to one of the five novels, the series will encompass the saga of Patrick Melrose’s life, from his horribly abusive youth at the hands of his father (Weaving) and the mother who tacitly condones the behavior (Leigh), to the outrageous playboy he becomes and the struggles he endures to defy the damage of his own past. The limited series is both gripping and humorous, sweeping through the South of France in the 1960s, New York in the 1980s and Britain in the early 2000’s.

production details
USA / Showtime – Sky Atlantic / 5×60 minutes / 2018

Adam Ackland as Executive Producer
Benedict Cumberbatch as Executive Producer
David Nicholls as Creator and Executive Producer
Edward Berger as Director
Edward St. Aubyn as Original Author
Michael Jackson as Executive Producer
Rachael Horovitz as Executive Producer

cast
Benedict Cumberbatch as Patrick Melrose
Anna Madeley as Mary Melrose
Blythe Danner as Nancy
Jessica Raine as Julia
Jennifer Jason Leigh as Eleanor Melrose
Indira Varma as Anne Moore
Margaret Clunie as Helene
Hugo Weaving as David Melrose
Sebastian Maltz as Young Patrick Melrose
Prasanna Puwanarajah as Johnny Hall
Pip Torrens as Nicholas Pratt
Morfydd Clark as Debbie Hickman
Holliday Grainger as Bridget Watson Scott
Celia Imrie as Kettle
Anthony Boyle as Barry
James Fleet as Sir Victor Eisen
Hippolyte Girardot as Jacques D’Alantour
Irène Jacob as Jacqueline D’Alantour
Harriet Walter as Princess Margaret

EPISODE GUIDE
1. Bad News | Airdate: 12 May 2018
In the grip of his addictions, Patrick Melrose must fly to New York to collect his father’s ashes. Over the course of a lost Manhattan weekend, Patrick’s remorseless search for satisfaction, haunted by old acquaintances and insistent inner voices, sends him into a nightmarish spiral, including a disastrous date with the girl of his dreams. Alone in his hotel room later that night, he pushes body and mind to the very edge – desperate to stay one step ahead of his rapidly encroaching past.

2. Never Mind | Airdate: 19 May 2018
At the Melrose family’s glorious house in the South of France, young Patrick has the run of the magical grounds. His father David rules with cruelty and his mother Eleanor has retreated into self medication and booze. Bravely imaginative and self-sufficient out of necessity, 9-year-old Patrick encounters the volatile lives of adults with fear. They are expecting guests for the weekend, but this afternoon is profoundly unlike other summer days, and the shocking events that precede the guests’ arrival tear Patrick’s world in two.

3. Some Hope | Airdate: 26 May 2018
Patrick reluctantly agrees to go to his first big social event since recovering. Together with his good friend Johnny Hall, he attends a glittering party in the English countryside hosted by former hippie Bridget – now married, titled and miserable – and attended by Princess Margaret as well as a number of Patrick’s old flames. Amid a crowd of social dragonflies, Patrick searches for redemption and capacity for forgiveness, while confronting his past in a myriad of ways.

4. Mother’s Milk | Airdate: 2 June 2018
Patrick is spending the summer at his old family home in France with his wife Mary and their two young sons. When Eleanor, now sober, announces her plan to leave the house to a New Age foundation instead of Patrick, he quickly falls off the wagon. As Patrick returns to his old self-destructive behavior, the fate of his marriage is seriously threatened.

5. At Last | Airdate: 9 June 2018
Patrick confronts the past on the day of his mother’s memorial service. Now truly clean and sober, he attempts to solve the puzzle of his mother’s complicity in his father’s abuse, as well as answer his father’s question, ‘What will you do with your life?’

• The Outsiders (ITV1 Thriller, Nigel Harman)

• Code of a Killer (ITV Crime, John Simm, David Threllfall)

• Old Curiosity Shop, The (ITV 2007, Derek Jacobi, Toby Jones)

• Affinity (ITV1, 2008, Anna Madeley, Zoe Tapper)

• Royal, The (ITV 2003-2009, Wendy Craig, Denis Lill)

• Agatha Christie’s Marple: A Pocketful Of Rye (ITV 6 Sep 2009, Matthew MacFadyen)

• Secret Diaries Of Miss Anne Lister, The (BBC-2 2010, Maxine Peake)

• Hamlet at Elsinore (BBC 1964, Christopher Plummer, Robert Shaw)

• A Handful of Thieves (BBC One 1969, Helen Worth, Martin Ratcliffe)

• Hands Across the Sea (BBC, 1938, Nadine March, Nicholas Phipps)

• My Son Reuben (Thames 1975, Bernard Spear, Lila Kaye,)

• The Franchise Affair (BBC 1962, Rosalie Crutchley, Michael Aldridge)

• The Galactic Garden

• The Sentimental Agent (ATV 1963)