U.K. Adaptation of 'Professor T' Breaks Record with Season 5

When the executives behind Walter Presents, Jo McGrath and Walter Iuzzolino, decided to start a production company to remake their most popular foreign language hits in English, choosing Professor T was a no-brainer. The original three-season Belgian version was a hit in the U.S. and the U.K., plus there had already been multiple European adaptations, including French, Czech, and German, the last of which outlasted the Belgian one with four seasons. However, no one could have known that the U.K. version, starring Ben Miller, would be so popular that it would outlast all of them, nabbing a Season 5 commission with little sign of ending soon.

However, if there's one thing that PBS viewers love, it's a show that improves with age. Some of the biggest hits are the ones that took a season or two to find their feet, from Unforgotten to Vienna Blood. Professor T was one of the earliest shows for the production studios, and you can see it grow from an almost line-for-line, move-for-move remake into its own conception of what the series should be over the first three seasons.

With that have come casting changes, including the addition of Juliet Stevenson (Emma) as psychologist Dr Helena Goldberg along the way and the exit of the series' original central heroine, DS Lisa Donckers (Emma Naomi), who was killed off at the end of Season 3. While we have not yet seen any of Season 4 (it will debut in the U.K. before the U.S.), Season 5 will apparently introduce the great Zoe Wanamaker (Agatha Christie's Poirot) as Professor T’s Aunt Zelda.

Since Season 4 is not out yet, the Season 5 synopsis is pretty generalized:

With six brand new episodes featuring some unexpected new relationships and more complex crimes for the Professor and police unit to tackle; including a boxing match that takes a bloody turn and a series of inexplicable sudden deaths at an upmarket spa, many favorite characters will face some tough choices, and the stakes for Professor T and his team have never been higher.

Miller returns as the titular Professor Jasper Tempest; he co-stars with Frances de la Tour (Enola Holmes) as his mother Adelaide, Juliet Stevenson (The Long Call) as therapist Dr. Helena Goldberg, Barney White (Masters of the Air) as DS Dan Winters, and Sunetra Sarker (Playing Nice) as DCI Maiya Goswami. Season 4 will add Rhian Blundell (Vampire Academy) as DS Chloe Highsmith who then returns, with Wanamaker joining for Season 5. 

The press release did not say if Stephen Brady would return to pen Season 5 after taking over the series from original scribe Matt Baker in Season 3, but it did confirm the return of directors Kaat Beels and Joel Vanhoebrouck, who helmed Season 4 after taking the reigns from Dries Vos, who helmed the first three seasons. Baker is the producer; executive producers are Iuzzolino, McGrath, and Alison Kee for Eagle Eye Drama. 

Professor T Season 4 is expected to debut in the U.K. sometime during the first half of 2025. The show will then premiere in the U.S. a few weeks after its U.K. finale on most PBS stations, the PBS app, and the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel in later 2025. All six episodes will be available for members on PBS Passport on premiere day as a binge. Professor T Seasons 1 through 3 are available to stream on PBS Passport, as are all three seasons of the Belgian original. Season 5 is expected to arrive on both sides of the pond in 2026.