Is Netflix's Eric based on a true story? The inspiration behind Benedict Cumberbatch's new series

Eric, a new series starring Benedict Cumberbatch, was released on Netflix on Thursday - with fans already praising the the star for his role.  

The show follows the story of New York puppeteer Vincent (Cumberbatch) who is also the creator of a fictional children's television show, Good Day Sunshine. 

However, he struggles to keep himself and his life together after his nine-year-old son Edgar goes missing on the way to school.

Vincent's inner demon - nurtured by his childhood neglect and current woes - then manifest as a 7-foot-tall, furry hallucination named Eric. 

While the series is not based on a real life story, inspiration for the show comes  from creator Abi Morgan's own experiences of living in New York. 

Eric, a new series starring Benedict Cumberbatch , was released on Netflix on Thursday, following the story of leading New York puppeteer Vincent 

Inspiration for the series' plot is said to have come from creator Abi Morgan's own experiences of living in New York (Abi pictured on May 15) 

Inspired by cases of missing children across the UK and US 

Speaking in an interview with RadioTimes ahead of the show's release, Morgan, 56, cited personal experiences of encountering cases of missing children in the UK and US as something that helped her to write the show.

Morgan said: 'Well, I mean, weirdly actually, I think growing up in the UK in the '80s, I remember being haunted by those stories of children who had gone missing, and then when I went to New York, I looked after a young boy in New York in the mid-'80s.

'While I was out there, I saw the milk carton kids and the missing persons. So that has always been very haunting.'

She added that Eric was not based on a real or specific case that she had witnessed herself but that she wanted to explore the time period of 1980s New York. 

Morgan also said that she wanted to bring attention to instances of children going missing not just in New York - but in towns and cities across the world. 

She continued: 'I guess that's the kind of callout at the centre of the show, is that we all want to live in that world - but unfortunately, there are monsters in the most surprising places.

'I guess that's what's at the heart of Eric, this quest for a father to find his son, but also a man who's then having to explore the monsters in himself and the city he's grown up in.'

Fans have already been quick to praise Benedict Cumberbatch for his performance in the new series, which dropped on Netflix on Thursday

In the Netflix production notes for the series, Morgan also informed the platform of research she had undertaken regarding pertinent social issues in the 80s, highlighting the outbreak of AIDS, and topics such as homelessness and institutional racism.

She also drew a comparison between the contemporary struggles faced by citizens living in 1980s New York - such as strikes and corruption within the New York Police Department - as being evident, in her eyes to that of the Metropolitan Police in the UK. 

Morgan was also full of praise for Netflix for being open to airing a show that explores the case of a missing person. 

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She explained to Netflix:  'When I pitched the idea of a New York puppeteer on a quest to find his missing son, with a seven-foot-tall blue monster in tow, it's to Netflix's eternal credit that they jumped on board.' 

Morgan added: 'Eric is a deep dive into the '80s Big Apple, grappling with rising crime rates, internal corruption, endemic racism, a forgotten underclass, and the AIDS epidemic, exposing the divisions rife between parents searching for their child, a detective battling with a system that is broken, and a lost boy who may never come home — and asks where the real monsters lie. With puppets… lots of puppets.'

Speaking about the show in an article published on the official Netflix website, Cumberbatch said that he perceived Vincent's journey to be a 'huge odyssey to go on in six episodes.'

Delving into the character of Vincent, he added: 'He starts to bring home his vanity, his idiosyncrasies, his ego, and all kinds of toxic behavior, which affects how he overlooks his kid and how abrasive he is in a marriage which has [already] had 10 years of pretty tumultuous moments of infidelity, arguing, and disconnection'.

Elaborating on the decision to make Benedict unrecognisable from more familiar looks in his previous roles, director Lucy Forbes said: 'That's why his hair is grown out, he's got a beard, and we put glasses on him'.

'Not only for the time period, but also to make him feel like Vincent as much as possible.'

Eric is available to stream on Netflix now.

Speaking about the show, Cumberbatch said that he perceived Vincent's journey to be a 'huge odyssey to go on in six episodes'