Unpacking 'Patrick Melrose' (TV Mini-Series)

15 Minute Read

30 Minute Read (if you watch all the videos)

Something Different

A lot of my previous content has been purely marketing-related, but it's time for me to express my other interest: film and/or television - I studied both Marketing & Screen Arts at university.

If you're fan of films, filmmaking, screenwriting, directing, creative processes, TV dramas [such as The Sinner & The Handmaid's Tale], The Patrick Melrose Novels, the Patrick Melrose series itself or actor Benedict Cumberbatch...then you'll most likely enjoy this blog!

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Let's Begin:

Patrick Melrose is a five part television drama adapted from the five semi-autobiographical novels from author Edward St. Aubyn. The limited series premiered in May 2018, and it follows Patrick Melrose (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) as he struggles inside a dysfunctional high-class British family, pushing down the memories of his troubled childhood with substance abuse. Check out the trailer below:

Each episode covers a different era of Patrick’s life, from a traumatic childhood to an adulthood spent in the grip of addiction. The series is a sad, stunning exploration of how emotional health can be carved out of childhood adversity, and it resonates with a very wide section of society who have either suffered abuse or struggled with addiction. The series also explores aristocracy in a way other series such as Downton Abbey do not: it is critical about the futility and triviality of people with inherited wealth.

Want to know where you can watch the show? I've listed several platforms at the end.

Patrick Melrose goes through such different phases and psychological states that the creators wanted each episode to have its own distinct style:

In Episode 1 titled ‘Bad News’ viewers meet Patrick Melrose in 1982 during one of the most significant moments of his life: the death of his abusive father David Melrose. An hour of debauchery, drugs and delirium follows in a fast-paced episode inspired by the 1996 film Trainspotting.

The episode swings back and forth between tragedy and comedy. For example, when Patrick’s father’s ashes aren’t available to pick up when he arrives, he says: “No chance of a rush job?” - This type of dark humor is what sets the series apart.

In Episode 2 titled ‘Never Mind’ viewers are transported back to Patrick’s childhood in 1967 France. This is a slower paced episode compared to the first one. It takes a step back and simply observes the dysfunctional Melrose family. The creators didn’t feel the need to manipulate the situation, but rather to let it play out and speak for itself - something which was inspired by Michael Haneke’s movies.

The creators also decided to only use technology and techniques from the 1960s: more static shots, slower cutting, and no camera tricks.

Episode 3 titled ‘Some Hope’ focuses on Patrick’s recovery in 1990, slowly etching toward a state of normalcy. For that reason the episode is more fluid in its feel, less cutting, a lot more tormented long takes following Patrick and exploring what he sees.

In Episode 4 titled ‘Mother’s Milk’ it’s the year 2003 and now Patrick has a family of his own. Fatherhood in particular is a struggle for Patrick – he’s careful not to be like his own father.

Episode 5 titled ‘At Last’ is a much more peaceful episode set in the year 2005, where at last Patrick reaches some sort of normalcy. What’s interesting to note is that Episode 1 begins with the death of his father, and Episode 5 begins with the death of his mother.

Television Landscape

The Melrose series focuses on one character in an extremely intimate way. Its basically five hours exploring this one man’s psyche, without murder, without scandals, just icky family drama. The television landscape merely five years ago wouldn’t have been as welcoming to the series. We’re at a point in time where everyone is being really truthful and speaking about things that are difficult, such as trauma and abuse. Therefore the Melrose series airing in 2018 coincides with society’s palette in terms of unrest and confusion. So, in the end, the perfect storm has finally allowed Melrose and similarly trauma-ridden shows such as The Sinner and The Handmaid's Tale to make it on the air.

Television Networks

The creators fought hard to find a home for Melrose. They had to convince people that although it was tough material, it had the power to arrest, entertain, amuse, shock and even educate people. The show was eventually ordered by Sky Atlantic’s director of programmes Zai Bennett and head of drama Anne Mensah. Mensah stated that:

“The series is a brave and distinct commission...through anti-hero Patrick Melrose, we will be offering viewers a compelling window into a world of privilege, cruelty and greed.”

It ended up being a joint production between Showtime and Sky.

Production Companies

Melrose is produced by three London-based companies: Two Cities Television, SunnyMarch and Little Island Productions.

Two Cities Television is an ambitious independent production company specialising in high quality drama. It was formed by Michael Jackson (not the thriller one) and Alex Graham in 2016 with backing from BBC Worldwide. Melrose was the first production for Two Cities Television.

SunnyMarch is an independent film and television production company run by Adam Ackland and Benedict Cumberbatch. Besides adapting the Melrose novels, SunnyMarch has worked on several other adaptations including bestselling novels: How To Stop Time and The End We Start From.

Little Island Productions is an independent television production company specialising in originally scripted television drama. Besides Melrose, other shows they’ve produced include:

Snatch - a series loosely based on the movie of the same name that’s about a group of up and coming hustlers who stumble upon a truckload of stolen gold bullion and are suddenly thrust into the high-stakes world of organized crime. Check out the trailer below:

Partners in Crime - a series set in the 1950s about a couple eager for adventure that enter a world of espionage and soon realise the world is easier to enter, than to leave. Check out the trailer below:

The Creators

Writer: David Nicholls

David Nicholls on Adapting Patrick Melrose for the Small Screen

Melrose was a passion project for British novelist and screenwriter David Nicholls, who got his hands on the first novel back in the 1990s and fell in love with the tone of them - how they mixed comedy with incredibly dark material, how the central character had this incredible richness and variety. Nicholls leapt on every volume as it was published over the next 20 years, and during that time became a screenwriter. He even had the novels on audio-book and would walk around London listening to them, learning the order of the scenes.

The task of adapting Edward St. Aubyn’s notoriously beautiful prose for television was a massive undertaking for Nicholls, confessing:

"They’re terribly challenging to adapt. When I had the meeting to adapt them, I had to persuade the executive producers and Edward St. Aubyn himself that I was the right person for the job."

The overall adaptation took up 5 years of Nicholls’ life, and he ended up with 80 drafts of it, as well as multiple versions: a 60 minute version, a 90 minute version, a 6 part version, and version where they’re all intertwined.

Nicholls untangled the novels for television the way Francis Ford Coppola broke down The Godfather: by reading them, stepping back, and pinpointing the moments that were the most dramatic.

Several challenges Nicholls faced include:

Balancing the Emotion with Action: The novels aren’t plot led, rather they’re a very internal, observational, emotional journey. This is what made the adaptation particularly difficult: finding a way to turn the in-depth emotional exploration of a character into compelling action that would grip a viewing audience for 60 minutes each week.

Removing & Re-allocating Characters: There are around 90 named characters scattered across the novels. Nicholls decided that a viewing audience would get more pleasure in seeing a few recurring characters at different points in their life, so he removed a lot of characters and re-allocated some to create a sort of ensemble.

Less History, More Mystery (SPOILER AHEAD): The novel format doesn’t have the same obligation to hold information back, it's fine to just reveal things to the reader. In the Melrose novels you find out about the abuse within the first 50 pages. Onscreen however, it’s much less entertaining to find out the causes of Patrick’s behaviour early on. So Nicholls decided instead to drip-feed the information to the audience using flashbacks, revealing Patrick’s childhood moment by moment, and leaving the actual abuse until the very last episode.

David Nicholls’ Previous Work Compared to Patrick Melrose

Nicholls adapted his own bestselling novels One Day (2011) and Starter for Ten (2006) into feature films.

One Day has sold over 5 million copies worldwide and is published in over 40 languages. Nicholls adapted it into a romantic comedy starring Anne Hathaway (trailer below). Given that his most notable recent work (One Day) prior to Melrose was romantic and sentimental (the complete opposite of Melrose) he really struggled to prove he could deal with darker material. Nicholls’ strategy going into the pitch then was not to focus on his previous adaptations, but rather to be more technical and discuss the style, the tone, how each episode would differ, and how flashbacks would be utilised.

Nicholls adapted Starter for Ten (trailer below) into a comedy-drama starring Benedict Cumberbatch, who also plays Patrick Melrose. Having worked with Cumberbatch years earlier and noticed his immense talent, at some point during the Melrose writing process Nicholls began to write with Cumberbatch in mind before he was ever formally attached to the role. Amazingly it just so happened that Cumberbatch was a fan of the novels and dreamed of taking on the Patrick Melrose character. It was actually one of his bucket-list roles.

Director: Edward Berger

Edward Berger on Directing Patrick Melrose for the Small Screen

Much like Nicholls, German director Edward Berger discovered the Melrose novels in the 1990s. He remembers the exact bookstore:

“In 1993 or something I walked into St. Mark’s Bookshop [in New York] and looked for a book and stumbled upon the first book of Patrick Melrose, ‘Never Mind.’ And I just devoured it.”

Again, much like Nicholls, with every new volume released he “just gobbled them up” and totally fell in love with that world. When Berger heard that there were talks of adapting the novels for the screen, without hesitation he put his hand up. The scripts eventually landing in his lap was a dream come true - something most people who worked on the series proclaim.

Prior to starting on the series, Berger met with the author Edward St. Aubyn and asked him what he wanted the audience to feel or take away from the 5 hours intimately following this one character, whereupon he replied “liberation from the chains of our past.” This is something almost every viewer can identify with: liberation, or moving away from what we grew up with.

Edward Berger’s Other Work Compared to Patrick Melrose

Some of Berger’s other work includes Jack (2014) and The Terror (2018).

Berger directed Jack (trailer below), a drama about a young boy with a troubled family who takes on a lot of responsibility at a very early age. Both Jack and Melrose explore the complicated bonds between parent and child.

Berger also directed 3 episodes of AMC’s horror drama The Terror the same year that he directed Melrose. The Terror, just like Melrose, is based off of a novel by the same name. The Terror explores all that can go wrong when a group of men, faced with treacherous conditions, struggle not only with the conditions, but with each other. The Terror is very different from Melrose, and Berger commented:

“I like challenging myself and always finding new material that I haven’t done before, that keeps me developing.”

Conclusion

It’s clear that the creators of the series were all brought together by their love of the Melrose novels. Adapting it to the small screen was most definitely a labour of love, and the series 4 Emmy nominations is a clear indicator that it was adapted at the right time and in the right way.

Where to Watch Patrick Melrose

Below I've listed/linked [in no particular order] where to watch the series. However, if you're reading this months after I've posted it, then some or all of the information provided below may have changed.

ABC iview - Free for Australian viewers (thanks Australia)

YouTube TV - 30 day free trial, 49.99 USD after

Amazon Prime Video - 7 day free trial, 10.99 USD after

Hulu - 30 day free trial, 11.99 USD after

iTunes - 16.99 USD

The Patrick Melrose Novels

Perhaps you want to start with the novels first? Below I've listed/linked [in no particular order] where to buy the novels. Again, if you're reading this months after I've posted it, then some or all of the information provided below may have changed.

Book Depository - Free delivery

Wordery - Free delivery

What To Read Next

You might like to read my other blogs/stories:

Visual Analysis: How ‘Nightcrawler’ (Film) Challenges Voyeurism

'Joker' Movie: 22 Mysterious Marketing Phases Revealed

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