Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Ben Miller, Emma Naomi, Francis de la Tour, Barney White, Douglas Reith, Sarah Woodward, Andy Gathergood, Juliet Aubrey, Ben Onwukwe, Rupert Turnbull, Juliet Stevenson, Sunetra Sarker, Lee Ross, Jeany Spark, Richard Lintern, Roger Barclay.
Reason is the greatest weapon in any detective’s arsenal, the ability to see through the conflicting lies and deceit with just the use of the mind is enough to elevate any investigator in the eyes of the public. Surveillance, the reliance on electronic snooping on a suspect in any criminal case is all well and good to dot the I’s and cross the T’s in the courts of law, but it is the intuition, the logic and wit of those who devote themselves to the dogged truth that prove a lawbreaker can be caught with sound judgement at all times.
Sound judgement is nothing though without an idiosyncrasy or flaw of the detective’s own, something peculiar that makes them stand out for their own life as well as the ability to see through the chaos around them, and whilst Professor T might be just a little too British for many to deal with, the foible of the well-mannered and uptight air that would welcomed in a pre-war Britain, the fact that the character is played so well by Ben Miller, makes him accessible in a way that another of his kind, the estimable Hercule Poirot, fails to do.
The third series of the Cambridge set home of the lecturer in Criminology takes up immediately where the second left off, the immediacy and aftermath of his intervention and use of a firearm in a police station that throws the brilliant but almost helpless man of reason into prison whilst he learns to live with his fate, and those who hold him in high regard suffer without his expertise.
The third series delves deeper into the Professor’s own unhappy childhood, the price of prison allows him the satisfaction of being able to right several wrongs inside the walls of the convicted, and revisit old mental scars in images of brutality; sometimes it is not the act of repentance that sets you free, but seeing firsthand what could have been that gives you a greater urgency in forgiveness.
The six episodes serve notice on the desire that some wantonly display for the slick and oddly reliant on technology that is prevalent across the Atlantic in their police procedural and detective series, for if you have a good mind that can sift its way through the noise, you have yourself the finest of gumshoes, even if they are from a background many of us cannot conceive of being involved within.
A class series that brings out the best in Ben Miller, Emma Naomi, Francis de la Tour, and Barney White, and with guest stars such as Lee Ross, the formidable Jeany Spark, Richard Lintern, Roger Barclay all leaving their mark on the show’s soul, Professor T is always assured a tremendous welcome by the armchair detective in their search for the restoration of justice.
Ian D. Hall