Watch Ben Miller in the Trailer for PBS's 'Professor T' Remake
Jonathan Ford
You've probably heard of the mystery series Professor T before. The popular Belgian import has been a foreign language hit on PBS Passport and local stations around the country, and its highly anticipated third season dropped earlier this year. But that's not the version that will be taking over your Sunday nights this summer.
Instead, we'll be watching the new English language remake of this popular drama - featuring a face that's more than a bit familiar to mystery fans. Former Death in Paradise star Ben Miller is taking on the role of the titular criminologist and amateur sleuth, who uses his unique detail-oriented mind to help solve crimes.
If this all sounds a bit like the popular USA Network series Monk, well, that's because it kind of is. But the concept of using an awkward or otherwise troubled genius to help stop bad guys isn't exactly new - and is clearly effective as a storytelling tool.
Professor T also stars Emma Naomi as one of the professor's former students now a Detective Sergeant investigating a serial rapist, Douglas Reith as his boss at the Institute of Criminology, and Frances de la Tour as his domineering mother Adelaide, with whom he has a somewhat complicated relationship.
Watch the trailer for yourselves below.
As Professor T begins, every aspect of Professor Jasper Tempest’s life is precisely calibrated and rigidly structured. Impeccably dressed and meticulously punctual, he lectures daily at the Cambridge Institute of Criminology, teaching students imaginatively, if pedantically, about the science of crime. Each evening, he returns home to his apartment which is as sterile and systematically ordered as a science lab. Thanks to this strictly regimented approach, his OCD and germaphobia are under control.
But Professor T’s buttoned-down world is slowly undone when he is persuaded by one of his former students, Detective Sergeant Lisa Donckers, to assist her in investigating a serial rapist who has started attacking young women again after a 10-year hiatus. The Professor’s encyclopedic knowledge of criminal psychology and his brilliant mind prove invaluable to the under-resourced CID team, but the cracks in his carefully constructed emotionless carapace also begin to show.
Working with the police – and the fiery, instinctive, and occasionally chaotic Lisa, in particular – drags Professor T far from his comfort zone and forces him to confront his painfully suppressed feelings for an old flame, Detective Chief Inspector Christina Brand. After deciding in an uncharacteristically irrational moment to move into his dusty and derelict family home, he also finds it increasingly difficult to escape the influence of his imperious mother, Adelaide, with whom he shares a harrowing family secret that casts a long shadow over both their lives.
Professor T premieres Sunday, July 11 at 10 pm. Will you be giving it a look? Let's discuss in the comments.
