Benedict Cumberbatch unpacks 'beautiful' Eric finale moment that 'broke his heart'

For Benedict Cumberbatch's Vincent, the finale is a roller coaster ride of emotions as he makes it out of the tunnels, dons the Eric puppet suit and pleads with his son to come home on the news.

Daring him to race him home, the pair are at last reunited along with Cassie (Gaby Hoffmann) back at their house.

When time jumps forward a little in the episode's final moments, though, the scene between Edgar and Vincent is one that breaks Cumberbatch's heart.

The actor chatted exclusively to RadioTimes.com about the sixth episode and those final shots of the father and son on the set of Good Day Sunshine.

Cumberbatch said: "It breaks my heart, that scene, in the writing of it and seeing little [Ivan Howe] come over the bridge as Eric – such a beautifully observed bit of writing.

"The fact that he’s taken on the creation that is this umbilical cord between the father and son that’s stretched throughout the whole episode in the most ridiculous, fantastical, painful, brilliant, funny and hard-to-watch way, you know?

"There it is resolved, the creator watching the creator in the son approaches, it’s beautiful. That’s a small example of someone trying to do better."

That last clip of the pair sees Edgar come over the bridge on the Good Day Sunshine set in the Eric suit, which Vincent is now in charge of in his day-to-day work.

As Cumberbatch says, the figure of Eric is an important tie between both characters throughout the series, so it really is a nice full-circle moment for them both.

Read more:

• The Split creator reveals "haunting" inspiration behind new Netflix series Eric
• Eric creator says "important" historical anecdote was nearly cut from series

The new series centres on Cumberbatch's Vincent as he struggles to cope with the disappearance of his son, but thinks the answer to finding him lies in his drawings of a big blue puppet named Eric.

The series also stars the likes of Gaby Hoffmann (Girls) and McKinley Belcher III (Ozark) and is penned by Abi Morgan, who is known for her work on The Split, Suffragette and The Invisible Woman.

As well as honing in on major themes such as corruption, poverty and racism, Eric is obviously also about the disappearance of children, and also chatting to RadioTimes.com, Morgan revealed what inspired her to bring these stories to life on screen.

She explained: "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: "I don’t think it was ever based on one specific case, but I think in choosing to go back to that time, I wanted to go back to that very vivid period in history where, obviously, there were those cases."

Eric is available to stream on Netflix now. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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