Mad Man Invades Cumberbach’s London Home, but He Still Presses on Filming New Netflix Series around New York City
“Eric” is filming in New York for a six part Netflix series that debuts sometime in 2024. The star of the series, British actor Benedict Cumberbach was probably thrilled to be getting out of London for a spell as the Daily Mail reported that a knife wielding mad man had broken into the North London home while he, his wife Sophie Hunter and their three children were at home. The culprit recently pleaded guilty and was slapped with a fine and a restraining order.
| 30 May 2023 | 06:07
The show must go on for Benedict Cumberbatch, who was seen recently filming the upcoming Netflix series “Eric” outside City Hall. The shoot came only days after reports that a knife wielding mad man had invaded their North London home while he, his wife and three young children were inside. Photo: Steve Sands/NY Newswire
If you’ve seen British actor Benedict Cumberbatch around town in recent weeks, that is because he was filming the upcoming series “Eric” which is set in 1980s New York. And maybe because he was happy to get away from a recent harrowing experience that happened at the London home he lives in with his wife Sophie Hunter and their three young children after it was invaded by a knife wielding mad man.
The invader of their north London home shouting, “I know you moved here. I hope it burns down,” according to the Daily Mail.
Jack Bissel, a former chef at the posh Beaumont Hotel in west London, pleaded guilty in a hearing earlier this month to invading the home. The Daily Mail reported he was armed with a huge fishing knife and pulled a plant from the garden that he threw at a wall, spat at the intercom and used a fishing knife to destroy the intercom.
He was fined the equivalent of $268.30 and issued a restraining order barring him from going near the family or the neighborhood around their north London home.
Prosecutors said that before he kicked in a iron garden gate around the home, he had purchased two loves of pita bread from a nearby store and told the shopkeeper that he was going break into the Cumberbach home and burn it down, according to the Daily Mail’s dispatch.
That whole drama probably gave Cumberbach plenty of material to draw on for the somewhat dark character he plays in the Netflix drama about a tv puppeteer named Vincent Anderson whose nine year son Edgar disappears enroute to school one day in New York City.
In the drama, his son had drawn a character named Eric and the increasingly distraught puppeteer is convinced if he can somehow get his son’s character on tv, then his son will return. According to the synopsis from Netflix, “When Edgar, a young boy goes missing in 1980s Manhattan, his grief stricken father Vincent, a puppeteer on America’s leading kids TV show, finds solace through his friendship with Eric, the monster that lives under Edgar’s bed.”
It also involves Vincent befriending an NYPD detective involved in uncovering corruption within the police department. Gabby Hoffman, who plays Cassie Anderson the wife of Vincent and mother of Edgar and McKinley Belcher, as detective Michael Ledroit, co-star with Cumberbatch on the series.
It is slated to debut sometime in 2024. Sources said it wrapped up filming around the Big Apple on May 27th.
Meanwhile, keep an eye out for cast and crew on the streets of New York.