Showtime is teaming with Sky Atlantic once again for a five-part limited series Melrose based on the books by Edward St. Aubyn. Emmy winner and Oscar nominee Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock, The Imitation Game, Doctor Strange) will star in and executive produce the series.
Melrose 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. Patrick Melrose (Cumberbatch) is 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. Each episode will follow one of the five novels, and take place over the course of a few intense days in the life of Melrose. The settings range from the South of France in the 1960s to New York in the 1980s and Britain in the early 2000s.
David Nicholls (Far From the Madding Crowd) is writing all five episodes. Search is underway for a director to helm all of the episodes. Nicholls and Cumberbatch executive produce with Adam Ackland, Michael Jackson and Rachel Horovitz. SunnyMarch Television and Two Cities Television will produce.
"We have been huge fans of these books for many years and David Nicholls' adaptations are extraordinary," said Cumberbatch and Ackland of SunnyMarch Television.
