More whodunits and why in new Professor T

Does the world really need another crime drama?

At the moment, ITV is broadcasting new Sunday night favourite Ridley, starring the wonderful – and surprisingly tuneful – Adrian Dunbar, while on Mondays, psychological thriller The Suspect, which involves a murder investigation and features a bearded but still beautiful Aidan Turner in the lead role, pops up.

But while some might say a big, fat “no”, others might argue that with the BBC’s The Capture and Shetland drawing to a close on Monday and Wednesday respectively, there’s a gap in the market.

Helping to fill it is the return of Professor T, which made its debut last year via the BritBox streaming service before eventually making its way onto regular TV. It’s produced by Eagle Eye, whose founders – Walter Iuzzolino, Jo McGrath and Jason Thorpe – are also the creative team behind Walter Presents, which is available via All 4 and has introduced a plethora of top-class foreign shows to the UK. It should perhaps come as no surprise, then, to find that the original six-part run was inspired by a hit Belgian series.

Ben Miller takes the lead role and is no stranger to the crime genre having played DI Richard Poole in the first two series of Death in Paradise; he’s also appeared in an episode of Agatha Christie’s Marple.

If you missed that initial series, here’s the essential details you need to get up to speed: Professor T – full name Professor Jasper Tempest – is a brilliant criminologist and lecturer at Cambridge University (Miller’s own alma mater). Eccentric, suffering from OCD and with a tortured past, he prefers to study miscreants rather than getting hands-on in hunting them down.

However, that changed when a former pupil, DI Lisa Donckers, asked for his help with a case involving an attack on one of his own colleagues. After his help proved crucial, Jasper continued to lend Donckers and her colleagues his expertise – although some are more enthusiastic about his involvement than others, especially when his problem-solving methods involve embarking on bizarre flights of fancy…

“Professor T has it all: intriguing murders, dreaming spires, and a cast of unforgettable characters, each with their own fascinating secrets,” said Miller ahead of the show’s debut. “You don’t have to be a professor of criminal psychology to know the ITV audience will love it.”

Of course, he was proved right, and so is now back with six more intriguing cases which will once again bring the boffin into contact with his old flame, DCI Christina Brand (played by Juliet Aubrey).

We should be seeing more of the wonderful Frances de la Tour as Jasper’s overbearing mother Adelaide this time too. The pair enter into therapy to help them deal with their issues, something that should assist viewers in understanding their behaviours and eccentricities.

But first, there’s another case to crack, this time involving a house fire which leaves a student badly burned and in a coma. With Brand, Donckers and the rest of CID scratching their heads over a possible motive and culprit, it’s up to the Prof to fire up his little grey cells and figure out whodunit and why.