By Lacy Baugher for Drama on February 27th, 2017

Benedict Cumberbatch to Star in Ian McEwan's 'The Child in Time' for Masterpiece

Benedict Cumberbatch in "Sherlock" Season 4. (Photo: Courtesy of Laurence Cendrowicz/Hartswood Films & MASTERPIECE)

Sherlock, Season 4 MASTERPIECE Mystery! on PBS Sunday, January 15th at 7pm ET Picture shows: Sherlock Holmes (BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH) For editorial use only. Not for use on social media. Courtesy of Laurence Cendrowicz/Hartswood Films for MASTERPIECE

Copyright: Hartswood Films 2016

Benedict Cumberbatch is coming back to Masterpiece – just not in the exact way you might think. The Sherlock star is producing an adaptation of award-winning author Ian McEwan’s 1987 novel The Child in Time for BBC One and PBS.     

In addition to serving as executive producer, Cumberbatch will star as Stephen Lewis, a successful children’s book author whose daughter suddenly goes missing. Her disappearance devastates Stephen’s marriage, as he and his wife struggle to deal with grief, loss and hope in turns.

Per the official press release, this ninety-minute feature will be “a lyrical and heart-breaking exploration of love, loss and the power of things unseen.”

“I read the novel years ago and it stayed with me - profound, beautiful and very moving. Only Ian McEwan could write about loss with such telling honesty,” Cumberbatch said in a statement. “We’re very excited to have Stephen Butchard’s subtle and brilliant adaptation, and in Julian Farino we have an extraordinary director who delivers emotional truth.”

The Child in Time will be the first production for Cumberbatch’s company SunnyMarchTV. However, this is not the actor’s first involvement with a McEwan project. He played the extremely creepy and generally deplorable confectioner Paul Marshall in the award-winning 2007 film adaptation of Atonement. (And in other strange connections: That’s also the part that helped Cumberbatch land Sherlock. Or at least so says Steven Moffat.) So things appear to have really come full circle on that front. 

“I'm thrilled to have my novel in the hands of such a high level creative team. I have fond memories of Benedict playing a brilliant and key part in the movie adaptation of Atonement,” McEwan said. “Now, it's a great honour to have this actor of such immense resource, experience and subtlety in the lead role of The Child in Time."

No word yet on when we might expect to see this production for ourselves, on either side of the pond. Cumberbatch is a bit busy at the moment, filming the Thomas Edison biopic The Current War. And rumor has it he’ll have to go back to playing his Doctor Strange for Marvel’s next Avengers film soon after. So, as with so many Cumberbatch projects – we’ll have to wait and see how the timeline for this shakes out. 

(And speaking of Sherlock: No, unfortunately, there hasn’t been any news on a possible fifth season of Sherlock. The wait there continues as well.)

Thoughts on The Child in Time? Good role for Cumberbatch or no? Let's discuss. 

By Lacy Baugher for Drama on February 27th, 2017
Lacy Baugher

Lacy's love of British TV is embarrassingly extensive, but primarily centers around evangelizing all things Doctor Who, and watching as many period dramas as possible.

Digital media type by day, she also has a fairly useless degree in British medieval literature, and dearly loves to talk about dream poetry, liminality, and the medieval religious vision. (Sadly, that opportunity presents itself very infrequently.) York apologist, Ninth Doctor enthusiast, and unabashed Ravenclaw. Say hi on Threads or Blue Sky at @LacyMB. 

Explore More

More to Love from Telly Visions

  • 'The Child in Time' Recap

    The Child in Time is one of those dramas that doesn’t turn out to be quite the story you think it is. On the surface, it’s a tale about a lost child. But, it also isn’t, in the most basic sense. The drama isn’t about the search for the missing Kate and it (spoiler alert!) offers little resolution about what happened to her. Her parents (spoiler alert, again!) don’t get her back. There’s no happy ending. She remains forever apart, both present and absent, a Schroedinger’s cat of a girl who is somehow both alive and dead for the purposes of this narrative. If you were looking for a crime thriller, a dramatic mystery or even a linear story that makes sense, you’re surely bound to be disappointed here.

    Instead, The Child in Time is a meditation on loss and grief, telling the story of what it takes to move past the worst thing that’s ever happened to you. In short: It’s kind of a lot for an evening on Easter Sunday, though those that stick through it may find the performances contained within worthwhile. (Or, at least, I did.) The acting is top notch and the emotions feel gut-wrenchingly real. However, if you find yourself wishing the story perhaps spent a bit more time on Kate herself or the particulars behind her disappearance rather than the gamut of British political thought about child rearing or a weirdo subplot about a grown man’s descent into what appears to be childlike madness, trust me, you’re not alone.

    By Lacy Baugher for Drama on 4/2/2018
    Benedict Cumberbatch and Kelly Macdonald in "The Child in Time" (Photo: Courtesy of Pinewood Television, SunnyMarch TV and MASTERPIECE for BBC One and MASTERPIECE)