Benedict Cumberbatch shifts his portrayal of complex, seminal characters into an even higher gear this Sunday, as Patrick Melrose, the thinly disguised fictional version of London author, Edward St Aubyn.

The series, starting on Sunday May 13th on Sky Atlantic, is based on the five Patrick Melrose books, charting the odyssey of the playboy aristocrat. Raped and assaulted as a child, for years, by his father, Melrose develops into a substance abusing playboy, before joining a recovery programme.

The series is set in New York and France as well as London. FilmFixer manages the film office service for Southwark and Camden Councils, which helped with some of the key locations, for both Manhattan and London.

FilmFixer CEO Karen Everett says, “The Peckham Liberal Club in Southwark, a private location, plays the Pembridge Church Hall in Notting Hill where Melrose’s Narcotics Anonymous meetings are held. A glimpse of the meetings can be been in the trailer, here, where Cumberbatch exclaims that not taking drugs is a nightmare.

“The exterior shoot involved a couple of period cars parked outside and Benedict Cumberbatch walking across Elm Grove to the door.

“A private home in Camberwell Grove was used as Melrose’s house, where 80 cast and crew filmed in August last year.

“Senate House on Malet Street in Camden appears in the trailer as the interior of the Drake Hotel in Manhattan – its bar, reception and lobby. The Scottish Legal Life Assurance Society in Glasgow was used as its exterior.

“Freemasons Hall on Great Queen Street in Camden saw 50 cast and crew filming in January this year as it played a mourning suite, reception and hall in Manhattan.

“And in Wild Court, behind Freemasons Hall, a Benedict Cumberbatch scene was filmed in a phone box.

“The critics are lauding his performance for its hilarious as well as heart rending interpretation of this tragic rogue.”