Patrick Melrose (miniseries)

Patrick Melrose is a drama television miniseries starring Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role. The show is based on a series of semi-autobiographical novels by Edward St Aubyn.

Premise
Over five decades from the 1960s to the early 2000s, wealthy Englishman Patrick Melrose attempts to overcome his addictions and demons rooted in abuse by his cruel father and negligent mother.

Cast

 * Benedict Cumberbatch as Patrick Melrose
 * Sebastian Maltz as young Patrick Melrose
 * Jennifer Jason Leigh as Eleanor Melrose
 * Hugo Weaving as David Melrose
 * Jessica Raine as Julia
 * Pip Torrens as Nicholas Pratt
 * Prasanna Puwanarajah as Johnny Hall
 * Holliday Grainger as Bridget Watson Scott
 * Indira Varma as Anne Moore
 * Anna Madeley as Mary Melrose
 * Blythe Danner as Nancy
 * Celia Imrie as Kettle
 * Harriet Walter as Princess Margaret
 * Allison Williams as Marianne
 * Morfydd Clark as Debbie Hickman
 * Marcus Smith as Robert Melrose

Production
It was announced in February 2017 that Benedict Cumberbatch would star in and produce a television adaptation of Edward St Aubyn’s Patrick Melrose book series, that would air on Showtime in the United States and Sky Atlantic in the United Kingdom. David Nicholls wrote the five episodes of the series, with Edward Berger directing. In July, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Hugo Weaving joined as Patrick’s mother and father, and Anna Madeley was cast as Patrick’s wife. Allison Williams and Blythe Danner joined in August 2017, with filming begun by October in Glasgow.

Release
The first trailer debuted in April 2018, and the series premiered on May 12 on Showtime. The series consecutively streamed new episodes on CraveTV in Canada. It was shown on Sky Atlantic in the UK, and Sky Vision handled international sales of the series.

Critical response
The series currently has a 90% 'Certified Fresh' score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 69 critic reviews with an average rating of 7.9/10. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, gave the film a score of 80/100 based on 32 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. In 2019, the series was ranked 51st on The Guardian newspaper's list of the 100 best TV shows of the 21st century.