Yes, it’s another flawed but brilliant hero, but this British crime drama is enthralling

PROFESSOR T ★★★★

“Trauma scrambles the senses. It transforms even the most lucid mind into a labyrinth.” Of all the profound summations of the psychological response to traumatic events delivered by Professor Jasper Tempest (Ben Miller) to his Cambridge University students in this cerebral crime drama, this is perhaps the most relevant to the series.

Indeed, it is to be poignantly repeated. The professor’s backstory, tied to his imposing childhood home that stands empty at the end of a walled garden, looms as one such labyrinth too terrible to explore but which holds the keys to a liberating reckoning.

Making its Australian free-to-air debut, this enthralling 2021 British remake of Paul Piedfort’s Belgian series, the fourth season of which will stream on Britbox from August 28, takes the genius but socially flawed forensic criminologist and makes his complexities as intriguing as the episodic mysteries to be solved.

The chameleonic Miller (also the amusingly tone-deaf dad in the ABC’s comedy Austin) is superb, inhabiting a very different kind of detective from his amiable – but also awkward – DI Poole in Death in Paradise.

Here, however, he is in darker territory. Lured out of his strictly academic role by an ambitious young detective (Emma Naomi, Bridgerton), the crimes Professor T helps to solve are presented in a disturbing light, rather than with the subtle detachment of the classic whodunit.

Like Hercule Poirot, Sherlock Holmes, The Bridge’s Saga Noren and even country GP Doc Martin, Professor T’s pathological idiosyncrasies set him apart, but they also give him the edge. Unlike those other fictional criminal investigators, his autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder are acknowledged, rather than merely implied. The character certainly reinforces the stereotype of the neurodivergent savant, but at the same time explores the role of childhood trauma in the developing psyche.

In a departure from many a British series, Professor T is largely shot under cold, grey skies, not during the short English window of summer light. The medieval stone buildings of Cambridge lend an austere atmosphere to not only the personal trajectories of the ensemble but also the disproportionate number of murders and rapes in the city.

Even romance, especially that between the professor and the head of police investigation, DCI Christina Brand (Juliet Aubrey), plays out against this sombre backdrop. Their fractured past is alluded to in one of the sparing fantasy sequences that offer striking glimpses into his mind. Atop a roof, where the professor retreats to ruminate, the two are imagined locked in a passionate tango.

Among the core cast is another deeply troubled personality, DI Paul Rabbit (Andy Gathergood). A jaded policeman, he is also dealing with unimaginable trauma, which helps the series remain true to its European storytelling roots.

But it is Miller’s version of this enigmatic and essentially likeable professor that carries the show, his analytical mind cutting through emotion for the greater good, and surprising those around him with his unique take on compassion every time.

Professor T airs at 8.30pm on Fridays on the ABC.

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