Sky TV announces additional casting for ‘Patrick Melrose’

Sky TV is putting some serious star power behind the upcoming Patrick Melrose, to perform alongside Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock) in the lead. The series, adapted from the semi-autobiographical novels written by Edward St. Aubyn, hilariously skewers the upper class as it tracks its protagonist’s journey from a deeply traumatic childhood through adult substance abuse and, ultimately, towards recovery.

Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle) and Hugo Weaving (The Matrix, V for Vendetta) will star as the parents of Patrick Melrose (Cumberbatch), with Anna Madeley (The Crown, In Bruges) set to take on the role of his wife.

The Sky Original series will consist of five episodes, each devoted to a single installment of the collection of novels from Aubyn. David Nicholls (One Day, ShakespeaRe-Told) will write all five episodes of the show, with Edward Berger (Deutschland 83, Jack) on board to direct.

Sky has pegged the series as a “true television saga” both “gripping and humorous”, promising to lay bare the drama of Melrose’s life, from his abusive youth at the hands of his father to the outrageous playboy of later years.

Nicholls’s adaptation, sweeping from the South of France in the 1960s, through New York in the 1980s, and to Britain in the early 2000s, will be produced by Two Cities Television.

Golden Globe-winning producer Rachael Horovitz (Moneyball, Grey Gardens), SunnyMarch’s Adam Ackland (The Current War), and Cumberbatch take executive producer credits.

Showtime, a long-time partner of Sky, climbed on board to distribute the series within the U.S. Sky Vision owns distribution rights for all other international markets.

Shooting on Patrick Melrose will begin this August in London and the South of France.