David Nicholls

In the debut images accompanying the announcement, Ambika Mod (This Is Going to Hurt) and Leo Woodall (The White Lotus series two) are seen starring as the central couple, Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew, across the places and decades of their love story.

They meet on 15th July 1988, the night of their graduation from university. They separate the next morning, but the chapters check in on them both on that one ordinary day for every year that follows.

Over four novels, two of which have been adapted for the silver screen (Starter for 10 and One Day), he has astutely mirrored the average life stages from adolescence to adulthood, often reducing the nation to tears in the process - read One Day at your peril.

Us, he says, was his “midlife crisis novel,” and it’s his latest to get the nod for adaptation as a four-part BBC miniseries, written by Nicholls himself.

The series, based on the semi-autobiographical novels by Edward St. Aubyn, will be adapted for television by One Day and Starter for Ten author David Nicholls.

Cumberbatch, who will also serve as an executive producer on the show, stars as Melrose, a man struggling to overcome the damage inflicted growing up with an abusive father and unsupportive mother. It will track his journey from his harrowing childhood through substance abuse and to eventual recovery.