Viewers slam ‘dreadful’ Benedict Cumberbatch drama Child in Time

Viewers complained of boredom as they tuned in to hotly-anticipated, The Child in Time, branding the show “dreadful”.

The one off BBC drama, based on the Ian McEwan novel, failed to sit well with viewers who branded it “poor” and joked that they would rather tune in to Holby City.

Benedict Cumberbatch played Stephen Lewis, a father whose four-year-old daughter goes missing from a supermarket.

Struggling to cope with the loss of their only child, Stephen and his wife Julie (Kelly MacDonald) drift as they attempt to cope with their grief.

But despite the hype in the run up to its airing, viewers were left “confused” by the disjointed timeline of events and “bored to tears” by the storyline.

Venting their frustration on Twitter, one posted: “WTF, none of it made sense. worst TV programme this year #ChildInTime.”

Another wrote: “Feel like I just wasted an hour and a half of my life watching ‘ a child in time ‘ BBC what a crock of s***.”

Cumberbatch said he found it difficult to shoot the the drama as fatherhood made some of the scenes too emotional.