Creators of detective fiction are always struggling with novel ways of differentiating their lead characters and there’s been a recent mini-trend for depicting them with autism (The Bridge and Astrid in Paris). The Belgian TV drama Professor T gave its titular character, an academic criminologist who helps police with their investigations, OCD – or obsessive-compulsive disorder.
ITV1’s remake for British TV, starring Ben Miller as the titular Cambridge University criminologist, has been criticised for promoting stereotypes. The charity OCD-UK stated that “OCD doesn’t really appear integral to the show and is not adding anything but creating a quirkiness about the character”. Perhaps in response to such criticisms, Miller has revealed that he was drawing on his own experiences of the mental health disorder.
Jasper Tempest’s biggest “quirk” is his profound fear of germs, which makes the latest series, in which he is sent to prison, especially challenging. Series two ended over 18 months ago, so you could be forgiven for forgetting the reason why Jasper was now behind bars (in brief, for discharging an unlicensed shotgun in a police station) – and frankly it didn’t really matter. The important thing was that he was now being handed prison blankets, towels and toiletries and telling the guard: “These won’t be necessary, I have a list of personal items you can collect from my home.” (“We’ve got a comedian” replied the guard). Jail was going to come as a nasty shock.
It also transpired that a fellow inmate was a man whom Jasper had helped convict and was now eager to avenge himself. Following an attack in his cell, Jasper declined an offer of a transfer to a Vulnerable Prisoner Unit. “As a criminologist I have been gifted a unique opportunity,” he told the guard in his usual lofty manner. “I shall remain in the belly of the beast.”
Meanwhile his former police colleagues Lisa Donkers and Dan Winters (Emma Naomi and Barney White) were keen to somehow gain Jasper’s assistance in their latest murder case in which a man had been beaten to death with a baseball bat.
The prime suspect (because his dabs were all over the murder weapon) was a car salesman and former boxing champion Adam Bernard (Jack Ashton from Call the Midwife). As fate would have it, Adam was incarcerated on the same prison wing as Jasper – an unlikely coincidence that nevertheless neatly dovetailed the two storylines.
Critics of the show’s depiction of OCD did admit that “it wasn’t a documentary” and in fact Professor T is no more realistic than, say, Death in Paradise. The prison scenes were however just about gritty enough to sustain the tension.
And the episode was as classy as ever, underlined by the continued guest appearances of Frances de la Tour as Jasper’s haughtily boho artist mother Adelaide and Juliet Stevenson as his therapist, Dr Helena Goldberg. Adelaide, busy painting dogs for a calendar (“well, it pays for 10 days in Venice”), provided regular injections of light relief.
But it was Ben Miller who was once again the main attraction as the germ-phobic criminologist who, consigned to laundry duty, adapted a pair of dustbin lids to handle the inmates’ dirty washing. Jasper can surely be the only inmate to receive a food parcel containing lapsang souchong, macadamia nuts and shiitake mushrooms – not to mention his formidable PA Ingrid Snares’ date-and-walnut cake.
“You could hide a file in that,” observed Jasper’s faculty dean of the cake. “Who needs a file?” interjected Adelaide. “You could smash the bars with it.” I hope they don’t deploy the stodgy sponge any time soon – an incarcerated Jasper is double the fun.