A new detective with old methods
Classic crime procedural, with a brilliant criminologist
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. And 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 buttoneddown world is slowly undone when he is persuaded by one of his former students, Detective Sergeant Lisa Donckers, to assist her investigations.
The Professor’s encyclopaedic knowledge of criminal psychology and his brilliant mind prove invaluable to the underresourced CID team, but the cracks in his carefully constructed emotionless carapace also begin to show.
Based on the hit Belgian series of the same name, Professor T was filmed on location in Belgium and Cambridge and stars stars Ben Miller, Frances de la Tour, Emma Naomi and Barney White.
Frances de la Tour (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, The History Boys) takes the role of Jasper’s colourful, but overbearing mother, Adelaide. Emerging star Emma Naomi (Blithe Spirit, The Trial of Christine Keeler) will play Detective Inspector Lisa Donckers with rising star Barney White cast as her police sidekick Dan Winters.
Ben Miller told us: “Professor T has it all: intriguing murders, dreaming spires, and a cast of unforgettable characters, each with their own fascinating secrets. You don’t have to be a professor of criminal psychology to know the audience will love it.”
In the opening episode, our protagonist finds himself unwillingly caught up acting as an advisor to the police; his interest in crime is purely academic. Diana Tyson (Elizabeth Kate Back) was violently attacked on the university campus where Professor T has tenure. DI Lisa Donckers suspects that the assault is very similar to one that occurred years beforehand, and, having been a previous student of Professor T’s, she thinks he can help.