Benedict Cumberbatch in Patrick Melrose adaptation

If you haven't yet read the Patrick Melrose novels by Edward St Aubyn, you'll very likely soon be scrambling to buy the five books that have inspired this new TV adaptation on Sky Atlantic.

Sky have just launched their first trailer for the subversive new saga starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the drug-crazed, aristocratic, madhouse protagonist.

Watch one minute of Cumberbatch prattling on about 'tartare' before introducing himself as a 'narcissistic, schizoid, suicidal alcoholic' and swanning about town in an eyepatch.

The self-proclaimed 'harrowing yet hilarious journey' Patrick Melrose is based on Edward St Aubyn's semi-autobiographical novels – one episode per novel (giving us five episodes) – and tracks Melrose's life through his traumatic childhood to an adulthood of substance abuse and onwards.

Encompassing time in the South of France in the 60s, New York in the 80s and Britain in the early 2000s, the adaptation has been written by BFATA Award nominee David Nicholls (who is himself the author of One Day and the man who adapted Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd into film).

Patrick Melrose promises to be a drama full of swagger, horror and humour. Trust us, you'll want to buy the novels and read them now, certainly before they all get re-published with Benedict Cumberbatch's face on.