A trailer has dropped for Benedict Cumberbatch’s new TV show, Patrick Melrose (a co-production between Sky and HBO), which airs on Sky Atlantic later this year.

Cumberbatch exec produces the show and plays the titular character, an upper class playboy who deteriorates into substance abuse after a difficult childhood.

The five-part series is based on the novels by Edward St. Aubyn and co-stars Hugo Weaving and Jennifer Jason Leigh, who play Melrose’s parents. It jumps from 1960s South France to 1980s New York to early 2000s Britain, and follows Melrose’s journey from a traumatic childhood through addiction and towards recovery.

David Nicholls (Far From The Madding Crowd) penned the series while Edward Berger (Deutschland 83) directs.

The tone of the show has been described as subversive, savage and funny, and we have to say that the trailer definitely has us intrigued: