Preview: 'The Child In Time' on Masterpiece

Benedict Cumberbatch plays against the type he's known for in the new drama The Child in Time coming to Masterpiece on April 1st.

Benedict Cumberbatch is known for playing weird and strange characters. Since he broke out as the titular Sherlock in the BBC's modern update from Steven Moffat, he's often found himself cast in lead roles, but rarely as a "the straight man." His characters are often kooky (like Dr. Stephen Strange in Doctor Strange) when they're not outright diagnosed with some sort of mental disorder (like his turn as Alan Turing in The Imitation Game). In this BBC adaptation from last fall, Cumberbatch takes advantage of these expectations to thwart them and play a completely normal character, or at least as normal as Cumberbatch ever gets.

The story revolves around the disappearance of four-year-old Katie, the daughter of Stephen and Julie Lewis. Stephen had her with him at the supermarket, he turned his back for a second, and boom, she's gone. The scenes that follow, making up about the first ten to fifteen minutes of the story, are probably the hardest to sit through, as Cumberbatch and Kelly Macdonald, who plays Julie, deal with the trauma of the unthinkable, that their daughter is gone and will never ever turn up again alive. Cumberbatch retreats into the "stiff upper lip" of British stereotype fame, while McDonald explodes her grief from end to end loudly and frightening enough for the both of them. Neither reaction can change the reality they face. Their child is gone.