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This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.
For Professor T’s executive producer Walter Iuzzolino, launching murder mysteries in the summer just makes sense. According to him, it’s both “a mini holiday from your day” and an after-hours complement to crime fiction beach reads.
“If you enjoy that sort of escape, the idea of then wrapping your towel, going back to your holiday home and watching this is quite nice,” he tells RT.
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“I call these kinds of shows ‘pleasurable’ crime. When I see a crime drama with an actor of the calibre of Ben, or David Mitchell in Ludwig – which exists in the same tradition as this and Death in Paradise – I know I’m going to have a nice time. They’re going to hold my hand. Ben has extraordinary range – he has an absolute blast in some slapstick scenes but he can really pull you in emotionally, too.”
That range is needed when the drama returns in a few weeks for its fourth series. Both Ben Miller’s eponymous prof and sergeant Dan Winters (Barney White) are reeling from the shocking death at series three’s climax, and now that the ITV drama has outlived its Belgian inspiration, which wrapped up after three series, anything could happen.
“We’ve taken the stabilisers off!” writer Stephen Brady declares, telling RT that half of this new run is made up of entirely original stories. Brady likes to start with a location or a weapon when planning the ingenious murders.
But overall it’s a team effort, with Brady, Miller and Iuzzolino plotting the professor’s emotional journey together. “Like most actors, Ben knows the character a bit better than me,” Brady says. “His input is invaluable.”
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