"[2] A BBC press release quoted Cumberbatch's description of the series as "...a sort of rock and roll 1812 period drama about a young man's gap year.
We needed a very good actor, someone young enough to be believable as an aristocratic, an almost slightly dislikeable character who is an adolescent in terms of his views of the world, his upbringing.
In 2005 the books were adapted as a BBC drama serial, written in part by the late Leigh Jackson, who fell ill after completing the first film and while working on the second and third.
[4] Whilst filming in South Africa, Benedict, with friends Theo and Denise, went for a weekend driving trip around Sodwana Bay.
"[2] The miniseries earned six BAFTA nominations, including one for Best Drama Serial, and Cumberbatch received the Monte-Carlo Television Festival's award for Best Performance by an Actor.
[6] When the series aired in the United States on PBS' Masterpiece Theatre, The New York Times said "It's an intriguing drama, and depressing in a way that seems morally important, but its merits are also staked on its seeming true to life.
[8] The third episode of the series trilogy, which is set in 1812, features Captain Arthur Phillip as Governor of New South Wales, when he was in fact leader of the colony from 1788 to 1792.