Patrick Melrose
Patrick Melrose
-
Premiered:
- Network: Showtime
- Category: Series
- Genre: Drama
- Type: Live Action
- Concept:Based on the books by Edward St Aubyn
- Subject Matter: Period
- Tags:
Plot Synopsis
Based on the acclaimed series of semi-autobiographical novels written by Edward St Aubyn, this five-part limited series is an acerbic and fearless look at Patrick Melrose's harrowing odyssey from a deeply traumatic childhood to his remarkable survival as an adult, spanning the South of France in the 1960s, New York in the 1980s and Britain in the early 2000s. The series opens when Patrick Melrose, in the grip of several addictions (drugs, sex, alcohol), is forced to 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, Marianne Banks Alone in his room at the Drake Hotel that night, he pushes body and mind to the very edge -- desperate always to stay one step ahead of his rapidly encroaching past. At the family's glorious house in the South of France, young Patrick has the run of the magical grounds. His father David rules with considered 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 the chain of summer days before and the shocking events that precede the guests' arrival tear Patrick's world in two. Patrick, cleaned-up but world-weary, reluctantly agrees to go to his first big social event since recovering. Together with his good friend and fellow former addict 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 challenged by his observation of the cruelties around him. Armed with his biting wit and a newly fashioned openness, Patrick confronts his past in a myriad of ways and emerges a new man.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Saturday, June 9, 2018 at 9pm ET/PT, Showtime premiered "At Last," the finale of PATRICK MELROSE. 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?"
Cast
- Benedict Cumberbatch - Patrick Melrose
- Jennifer Jason Leigh - Eleanor Melrose
- Hugo Weaving - David Melrose
- Philip Arditti - Pierre
- Gary Beadle - Chilly Willy
- Elizabeth Berrington - Fleur
- Morfydd Clark - Debbie Hickman
- Nancy Crane - Nancy Banks
- Blythe Danner - Nancy Valence
- Allison Williams - Marianne Banks
- Julian Firth - Tony Fowles
- James Fleet - Sir Victor Eisen
- Hippolyte Girardot - Jacques D'Alatour
- Holliday Grainger - Bridget Watson-Scott
- Celia Imrie - Kettle
- Irene Jacob - Jacqueline D'Alatour
- Anna Madeley - Mary Melrose
- Georgia Maguire - Amanda Pratt
- Sebastian Maltz - Patrick Melrose, young
- Tim McMullan - Sonny Gravesend
- Jonjo O'Neill - Seamus Dourke
- Prasanna Puwanarajah - Johnny
- Jessica Raine - Julia
- Amanda Root - Virginia Watson-Scott
- Marcus Smith - Robert Melrose
- John Standing - George Watford
- Pip Torrens - Nicholas Pratt
- Indira Varma - Anne Moore
- Eileen Walsh - Annette
- Eben Young - Jerry Banks
- Harriet Walter - Princess Margaret
- Oengus MacNamara - Bellboy