Patrick Melrose

Brilliantly acted; equal parts hilarious and harrowing

No, he mustn't think about it, or indeed about anything, and especially not about heroin, because heroin was the one thing that really worked, the only thing that stopped him scampering around in a hamster's wheel of unanswerable questions. Heroin was the cavalry. Heroin was the missing chair leg, made with such precision that it matched every splinter of the break. Heroin landed purring at the base of his skull, and wrapped itself darkly around his nervous system, like a black cat curling up on its favourite cushion. It was as soft and rich as the throat of a wood pigeon, or the splash of sealing wax onto a page, or a handful of gems slipping from palm to palm.

• Edward St Aubyn; Some Hope (1994)

Directed by Edward Berger, and written for the screen by David Nicholls, this five-part miniseries is based on the semi-autobiographical Patrick Melrose novels by Edward St Aubyn. Published between 1992 and 2011, the five novels (Never Mind, Bad News, Some Hope, Mother's Milk, and At Last), were essentially part of St Aubyn's rehabilitation, as he battled a crippling series of addictions stemming from sexual abuse at the hands of his father when he was a child. At the height of his dependency, St Aubyn was spending up to £5,000 a week on various drugs; heroin, IV cocaine, Quaaludes, amphetamines, barbiturates, opiates, alcohol. Sometimes alternately, sometimes together. In a part he had wanted for many years, Patrick is played by Benedict Cumberbatch; during an AMA on Reddit in 2013, Cumberbatch (who is also credited as one of seven executive producers) was asked what roles he would most like to play, to which he answered Patrick Melrose and Hamlet, both of which he has since performed. And although I wasn't overly impressed with his performance as Hamlet in Lyndsey Turner's 2015 Barbican Theatre production, his Patrick Melrose is absolutely superb. The series has its flaws, and I don...