Meet the rising star of Henleaze

Most of us wouldn’t know what to say to a celebrity if we met them, but for five-year-old Dainton Anderson from Henleaze, riding on the shoulders of Benedict Cumberbatch was just a fun new experience to add to the many others he’s had in his life.

On the surface, Dainton lives a normal life at home with mum Sharon Stanton, dad Graham Anderson and his baby brother, but when he was just a year old he landed his first modelling job, appearing in campaigns for baby formula brand Aptimal and then later Asda nappies and local firm CR Windows.

“In the first instance, I thought we’d give it a try,” says mum Sharon, who was the one to get Dainton into the showbiz life he’s now leading. “He got his first job when he was one and it’s gone on from there really.”

Patrick Melrose is Dainton’s first TV role

After getting Dainton an agent, they received an email from him inviting the family to a casting in London for a then-unnamed five-part TV show starring Benedict Cumberbatch. It would later turn out to be Sky’s Patrick Melrose, based on novels by Edward St Aubyn. The family knew the part was to play Cumberbatch’s son, and after a string of auditions, Dainton was in the final two young actors.

“The director flew in to meet him and the other little boy, and they met an acting coach who got them to do some improvisation tasks,” Sharon says. She wasn’t allowed in the room with her son while any of the auditions took place, but Dainton held his own, despite not having any experience of working in TV before.

“Initially, at the first casting, we were thinking ‘let’s just go with it’,” she recalls. “The initial brief had mentioned Benedict Cumberbatch was going to be in the show but we didn’t know how big it was going to be. When we had to keep going back to London week after week, it became really surreal. It was like I needed to be pinched!”

A still from Patrick Melrose, with Dainton sleeping between actors Anna Madeley and Benedict Cumberbatch

Dainton was given the part, and then the family began a five-month filming schedule, travelling between London, Glasgow and France between August and November 2017. Dainton started school during this period, and regularly swapped the classroom for trains to London and planes to Scotland, enjoying the travelling as much as the work, Sharon says.

They first met Benedict Cumberbatch on set “and just talked like normal people,” Sharon laughs. “He was really nice, really helpful and made sure we settled in because it was a lot of filming over five months.”

Dainton on the set of Patrick Melrose with members of the crew

For Dainton, the filming was fun – “I was a bit nervous” he admits. His tasks included jumping on a bed, pretending to be asleep and saying a few lines – tasks that posed no problem. Despite taking to acting like a natural, Dainton says he is unsure what he wants to do in the future and is keeping his options open.

“He’s just auditioned and got a part with Mattel for a Thomas the Tank Engine TV commercial,” Sharon says proudly. “He loves every aspect of it – from meeting new people to travelling on the train. I’ll keep putting him up for things until he says he doesn’t like any more.”

The final episode of Patrick Melrose, starring Dainton, airs on Sky Atlantic at 9pm on Sunday June 10 2018.