Benedict Cumberbatch is a distraught father in The Child in Time trailer

Kelly Macdonald costars in the BBC One and Masterpiece drama

By
Maureen Lee Lenker
Author Maureen Lee Lenker
Maureen Lee Lenker

Maureen Lee Lenker is a senior writer at Entertainment Weekly with over seven years of experience in the entertainment industry. An award-winning journalist, she's written for Turner Classic Movies, Ms. Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, and more. She's worked at EW for six years covering film, TV, theater, music, and books. The author of EW's quarterly romance review column, "Hot Stuff," Maureen holds Master's degrees from both the University of Southern California and the University of Oxford. Her debut novel, It Happened One Fight, is now available. Follow her for all things related to classic Hollywood, musicals, the romance genre, and Bruce Springsteen.

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Published on September 12, 2017 11:08PM EDT

From Hamlet to The Imitation Game, Benedict Cumberbatch has taken on many roles that require him to inhabit a traumatic headspace — but he’s facing a new challenge playing the father of a missing girl in the BBC One and Masterpiece PBS drama The Child in Time.

Based on the best-selling novel by Ian McEwan (Atonement), the telefilm follows Stephen Lewis (Cumberbatch) and his wife, Julie (Kelly Macdonald), as they cope with the disappearance of their daughter.

“Can time heal all wounds?” the trailer asks. It seems the answer might be no — the child disappears under Stephen’s watch, leaving him to struggle with the fallout.

Watch the trailer above for more. The Child in Time will air on Masterpiece on PBS in 2018.

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