Back to school for Ben, as actor heads to Cambridge to play leading role in new crime thriller

Ben Miller in the titular role
Ben Miller in the titular role Credit: ITV

It may be a brand new crime thriller, but for its leading man it was more than a little familiar.

Ben Miller is starring in a new ITV drama called Professor T, much of which was shot around the university he attended as a student.

The six-part drama, which is based on the hit Belgian series of the same name, was filmed in Belgium and Cambridge.

Miller, who has also starred in Bridgerton and Johnny English, began his acting and comedic career at Cambridge’s theatrical group Footlights, at the same time as comedians Sue Perkins and Andy Parsons.

He also studied Natural Sciences at the university for his undergraduate and began, but later withdrew, from doing a PhD in solid state physics.

He said: “There was the strange sensation of feeling life had come full circle, my house in this show, It’s part of Jesus College and it’s where one of my good friends fromuniversity lived, who I wrote my first comedy sketches with."

The series is centered around the eccentric, but brilliant Criminology Professor Jasper Tempest, played by Miller. He suffers with OCD and has a tortured past

And OCD is a condition the 55-year-old has experience of himself.

“His OCD is not my OCD, so even though I understand the feelings behind his behaviours, those aren’t the behaviours I experienced. I can only talk about my own OCD and I’m sure everybody has it differently and to varying degrees, it’s an incredibly wide spectrum ofbehaviour. Mine is about control, it’s a way of dealing with my anxieties by attempting to control something because I can't control everything else.

Much of the filming was done under strict Covid restrictions, but it helped bring the cast closer together.

“It was really strange, but the odd thing is I felt closer than ever to the people we filmed with, even though we could hardly speak to one another and I still don't know what half of the team actually look like, because everyone was wearing a mask all the time! There's areal bond between everybody, and it was extraordinary that we didn’t have a single case of COVID the whole time we filmed."Of course it's not the first time that Cambridge has provided the backdrop to a hit ITV drama. Grantchester was also filmed there, with a sixth series is expected to air later this year.