Watch Benedict Cumberbatch in ‘The Child in Time’ Trailer

Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch may not be about to play the great detective again anytime soon, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been keeping busy in the meantime. (And, no, before anyone asks, no one has any idea when another season of Sherlock might happen. If it ever will. It’s sad, but we’ll just have to keep the dream alive.)

Cumberbatch has a new semi-regular gig as a Marvel superhero – he’ll next play Dr. Stephen Strange in team-up tent pole Avengers: Infinity War – and he’s been popping up in a variety of projects on screens both large and small. One of them will even show up on Masterpiece on a Sunday night in the not too distant future. So it’s almost like having Sherlock back, right? (It’s not, at all; but I’m trying to pretend.)

Cumberbatch will both produce and star in the small-screen adaptation of author Ian McEwan’s critically acclaimed novel The Child in Time. He’ll play Stephen Lewis, a successful children’s book author whose life is blown apart when his daughter goes missing during a trip to the supermarket. The story is set two years after her disappearance, and explores Stephen’s struggle to find purpose in his life without her. (His marriage has ended and his best friends are abandoning him to move to the country, so not a lot is going great for Stephen at the moment, apparently.)

The story seems rather dark, filled with grief and despair and heartbreak. In short: Cumberbatch will doubtless have plenty to submit as part of his Emmy reel next year.

The BBC dropped a first look trailer for The Child in Time this week which seems to back up that assessment, featuring several shots of Cumberbatch and co-star Kelly MacDonald (Boardwalk Empire) in various stages of grief and pain.

Watch for yourselves below: