Ben Miller, the actor who has made a quiet art of playing brilliant misfits, is returning to ITV's Professor T for not one but two further seasons, a confirmation that arrived with the warmth of something audiences had quietly hoped for. The announcement, made on The One Show, places Miller once again inside the skin of Professor Jasper Tempest — an academic whose particular way of perceiving the world makes him indispensable to those around him, even as it keeps him at arm's length from ordinary life. It is a reminder that television, at its best, finds its longest life not in spectacle but i
Ben Miller confirms Professor T return with series 5 and 6 in development
It's a very exciting situation to be in.
Mark
So Miller's doing both Professor T and this new book and another show—how does he manage all of that?
Mimi
He's clearly in a phase where multiple projects are moving at once. The book came out, Austin is waiting for a UK release, and now Professor T is locked in for at least two more seasons. It's the kind of portfolio a working actor builds when things are going well.
Luke
But we should note: the book is his first adult novel, which means it's new territory for him. And on Austin—we know it's successful in Australia, but we don't actually have a confirmed UK air date. "Sometime over summer" is not a date.
Mark
What makes Professor T different from Death in Paradise, though? Both are detective stories.
Mimi
The key difference is that Tempest is an academic pulled into police work, not a police officer himself. He's solving cases from the outside, and he's managing OCD while doing it. It's a different kind of detective story—more about the character's internal world colliding with external problems.
Luke
Though we should be clear: the source describes Tempest as having OCD and a troubled history, but it doesn't go into detail about what that means for the character or how it shapes the stories. We know it's there; we don't know exactly how it functions in the narrative.
Mark
And the fact that season six is already in development—does that mean it's greenlit, or just that they're thinking about it?
Mimi
The language is "under development," which suggests active work but not necessarily a formal commission yet. Miller said they're "working on" it, which is different from "it's been ordered."
Luke
Right. And we don't have a statement from ITV confirming season six. We have Miller's comment and the executive producer's comment about season five being significant. That's the actual confirmation we have.
Mark
So what's the real story here?
Mimi
An actor people like is coming back to a role people like, and the show is successful enough that more seasons are being developed. It's straightforward good news for fans.
Luke
And for Miller, it's validation that this character works and that audiences want more of him. That matters for his career.
Der Puls
- Season five of Professor T is confirmed for autumn, and the production team is already deep into developing season six — an unusually confident double announcement for a drama still mid-run.
- Executive producer Jo McGrath has signalled that season five will carry real weight for Tempest personally and professionally, closing on a finale engineered to leave viewers suspended in uncertainty.
- Social media responded with immediate warmth, with fans drawing threads between Miller's various beloved roles and celebrating his continued presence across British television.
- Beyond Professor T, Miller's comedy series Austin has already topped Australian ratings in its second season, though UK audiences are still waiting on a broadcast date that Miller himself could only loosely place 'sometime over the summer.'
- Miller has also stepped into fiction with his debut adult novel A Very Dangerous Pursuit, a spy thriller whose reluctant, self-conscious hero deliberately inverts the confident archetype — though Miller admitted he only began worrying about literary permissions after the book was already in print.
Ben Miller, the actor who has made a quiet art of playing brilliant misfits, is returning to ITV's Professor T for not one but two further seasons, a confirmation that arrived with the warmth of something audiences had quietly hoped for. The announcement, made on The One Show, places Miller once again inside the skin of Professor Jasper Tempest — an academic whose particular way of perceiving the world makes him indispensable to those around him, even as it keeps him at arm's length from ordinary life. It is a reminder that television, at its best, finds its longest life not in spectacle but in characters who feel genuinely, imperfectly human.
Ben Miller, best known for playing the sardonic detective Richard Poole in Death in Paradise, has confirmed his return to ITV's Professor T — and not just for one more season. Speaking on The One Show, Miller revealed that season five is due in autumn and that the team is already at work on season six, a double announcement that caught many viewers pleasantly off guard.
Professor Jasper Tempest is, in some ways, a spiritual cousin to Miller's earlier roles: a brilliant outsider, an academic with OCD and a complicated personal history, drawn into criminal investigations by a former student now in law enforcement. Executive producer Jo McGrath suggested season five would be significant for the character on both personal and professional fronts, and that it would close with one of the show's characteristically gripping finales.
The response online was immediate and affectionate, with audiences connecting Miller's various roles into something that feels like a coherent body of work — a career built around men who see the world differently and are valued, and burdened, for it.
Miller's activity beyond Professor T is equally busy. His comedy series Austin has already aired a second season in Australia, where it became the country's top comedy, though UK viewers are still waiting. He was candid about the uncertainty of its British broadcast window. He has also published his first adult novel, A Very Dangerous Pursuit, a spy thriller whose central character — a self-conscious, gadget-averse man at odds with the Bond archetype — reflects Miller's evident interest in heroes who don't quite fit the mould. He admitted, with some amusement, that he only began wondering about literary permissions from the authors who had inspired him after the book was already published.
Ben Miller, the actor who made his name as the sardonic detective Richard Poole in Death in Paradise, is returning to another role that has captured audiences: Professor Jasper Tempest in ITV's Professor T. The announcement came during an appearance on The One Show, where Miller confirmed not only that season five is in the works but that the production team is already deep into developing season six.
Professor Tempest, like Poole before him, is a detective of sorts—though one who operates from the margins of the police world. The character is an academic, a man wrestling with obsessive-compulsive disorder and a complicated personal history, who finds himself drawn into active investigations by a former student now working in law enforcement. It's a role that lets Miller play the brilliant outsider, the person whose particular way of seeing the world makes him invaluable precisely because he doesn't fit neatly into institutional structures.
Miller told viewers that season five would air in autumn, then added the news that caught many by surprise: the team is already working on what comes next. "It's a very exciting situation to be in," he said. Executive producer Jo McGrath added weight to the announcement by hinting that the fifth season would be significant for the character, both in his personal life and his professional work, and that it would end with one of the show's signature finale episodes—the kind designed to leave viewers desperate for resolution.
The response from viewers was immediate and warm. Social media filled with comments from people who had followed Miller through his various roles, many of them expressing particular affection for his time in Death in Paradise. Some joked about the circumstances of his character's departure from that show; others simply celebrated his return to a character they'd come to care about. The enthusiasm suggested that Miller has built a genuine connection with audiences across multiple projects.
Beyond Professor T, Miller has other projects moving forward. He appeared on Sunday Brunch to discuss Austin, a comedy series of which he is part. Season two has already aired in Australia, where it became the country's top comedy, but it has not yet reached UK audiences. When pressed on timing, Miller was honest about the uncertainty—sometime over the summer, he thought, though he couldn't be entirely sure. He's also published his first adult novel, A Very Dangerous Pursuit, a spy thriller set in Europe that draws inspiration from classic adventure fiction. Miller acknowledged the peculiar pressure of releasing a book, noting that only after publication did he begin to wonder whether he should have sought permission from the original authors whose work had influenced his own. The character at the heart of his novel, Richard Hannay, shares DNA with figures like James Bond but is fundamentally different—a man uncomfortable with gadgetry and deeply self-conscious, the opposite of the confident operative audiences might expect.
Bemerkenswerte Zitate
Season five will prove to be a momentous one for Professor T, both personally and professionally, and the series will climax with one of its trademark series finale episodes guaranteed to keep audiences glued.— Executive producer Jo McGrath
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