Patrick Melrose, episode 4 review: Benedict Cumberbatch's acting is on a higher plane

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Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Patrick Melrose
Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Patrick Melrose Credit: Sky

Foolishly, you yearn for Patrick Melrose to be happy. By the close of Some Hope, the glimmer of redemption loomed in the dark by the lake. Thirteen years on, in Mother’s Milk, Patrick had indeed acquired the accoutrements of a contented life – wife, children, even a career. But alas, with the other hand the Lord taketh away. 

An adaptation enfolding fidelity and freshness, Patrick Melrose (Sky Atlantic) continues to hover close to perfection. In this penultimate instalment, the fortysomething Patrick returned to the scene of his original sinning-against for a villa holiday. David Nicholls’s lithe script has never let us, or Patrick, lose sight of those formative nightmares, which hover in flashbacks....

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