Benedict Cumberbatch says Child In Time story was ‘very unpleasant place to go’

THERE’S a huge change of pace for Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch in tonight’s one-off drama The Child In Time.

He plays Stephen Lewis, a successful children’s book writer whose life takes a shattering turn when he loses his only child, four-year-old Kate, in a supermarket.

And Benedict, a major Hollywood star these days, admits it was a challenge.

“When you’re dealing with something like the loss of a child it’s pretty distressing, I won’t lie,” he says.

“It was a very unpleasant place to go to.

“By circumstance it happened that my second boy had been born weeks before, but it’s not a prerequisite to doing this role to be a father.

“If you were a childless actor trying to imagine it you’d have to be made of stone not to feel the enormity of what that must be like.

‘The starting point was me’: Benedict Cumberbatch says Child in Time character is closer to his real self

“Playing with your own experience can be incredibly dangerous anyway as you need to be able to separate things very easily, otherwise they can get out of control and be very damaging.

“So I tried as much as possible for that not to creep in.”

Kelly Macdonald plays wife Julia and while the subject matter is a tough one, Benedict says working with her was a delight and it was surprisingly fun when the cameras stopped.

“How you make sense of a life with an absence that is ever-present is a horrible thing to contemplate,” adds Benedict, who also acted as an executive producer on the adaptation of Ian McEwan’s acclaimed novel.

“Despite that, the drama isn’t depressing. The important thing to take from the story is the extraordinary ability and resilience that humans have to continue living, for that person and their memory.”

The Child In Time, BBC1, tonight, 9pm.