Everything to Remember Ahead of ‘Professor T’ Season 5
'Professor T' returns for Season 5; here's everything you need to remember.
The original Flemish-language Professor T was a smash hit when it debuted on VRT 1 in 2015. A Sherlock Holmes-type figure who works as a criminology lecturer, Professor T suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and is neuro-atypical. However, when a former student, recently promoted to Inspector, comes to see him after hitting a wall in solving a rape case, he’s unable to refuse her and soon becomes a regular consultant to her detective team. The series proved so popular that it has been remade multiple times: in German in 2017, in French and Czech in 2018, and finally in English in 2021.
Every Professor T starts the same way. He’s a Professor at a top academic institution: in Belgium, he’s Jasper Teerlinck (Koen De Bouw) at the University of Antwerp; in Germany, Jasper Thalheim (Matthias Matschke) teaches at the University of Cologne; in France, Julien Tardieu (Mathieu Bisson) is professeur émérite à l’université de Nantes; the Czech Jáchym Tauber (Pavel Reznícek) teaches at Charles University/University of Prague; and the British Jasper Tempest (Ben Miller) is at Cambridge.
His former student, Belgian Inspector Annelies Donckers (Ella Leyers)/German Investigator Anneliese Deckert (Lucie Heinze)/French Detective Lise Doumère (Fleur Geffrier)/Czech Sergeant Amalie Drapalova (Sarah Havacova)/British DS Lisa Donckers (Emma Naomi), turns to him for help on a rape case. In each case, her superior, whom Professor T secretly harbors a longstanding crush on, is displeased about bringing in outside help. In all cases, her bagman stands up for her despite not liking the Professor, and the team ends up keeping him around as a valued member.
Of these, only the U.K. version is still releasing new seasons. Starting with Season 1, Miller (Death in Paradise) and Naomi (Bridgerton) co-star alongside Barney White (The Couple Next Door) as bagman DS Dan Winters, who would like to date Lisa; Juliet Aubrey (All Creatures Great & Small) as DCI Christina Brand, Jasper’s longtime crush; Frances de la Tour (Vicious) as Adelaide Tempest, Jasper’s mother; and Douglas Reith (Downton Abbey) as The Dean, Jasper’s boss.
Professor T Season 1
Though the first six mysteries in Season 1 follow the same structure as the Belgian show, they have their own flavor. For example, the premiere is much more brutal; the rape is shown on screen, the violence factor is higher, and things that are implied in the Belgian version are spelled out. The second episode has more fun with Jasper’s mental state, giving him full-on musical numbers to hallucinate while investigating a poisoning.
Episode 3 brings Jasper’s mother into the picture as it does in the Belgian one, but not as a one-off. In this version, she’s a permanent fixture. (Listen, if you have Frances de la Tour, you do not waste her.) Donckers’ family is more fleshed out, with her father revealed to have dementia, which affects her job and personal life. She and Winters take hesitant steps toward a relationship, but then call it off and date other people before maybe considering getting back together.
But the biggest change comes at the end of the show’s first season, when the U.K. version goes boldly where no Professor T has gone before: therapy.
Professor T Season 2
Therapist Dr. Helena Goldberg (Juliet Stevenson) joins the cast in Season 2. Adding therapy makes the series feel different from its predecessors from here on out, even though the mysteries (and the overall arc) follow the same trajectory. It helps that the U.K. seasons are only six episodes, versus 13 in the original; the production selectively chooses what to remake, which does it a great deal of favors. The Belgian version, for example, spends multiple episodes with Jasper suspended from his job; in the U.K. version, he gets an upgraded classroom and goes straight to the arson mystery without passing Go or collecting £200.
Once again, Frances de la Tour is the season MVP; the scenes where Jasper’s mother accompanies him to therapy are riveting. Meanwhile, Lisa and Dan start seriously dating, with Dan stepping up to help with Lisa’s father. Unfortunately, it doesn’t last, as Lisa pursues a promotion which ultimately breaks them apart. The show also brings Jasper and Christina together much faster, even though she has a new boyfriend, DI Simon Lanesborough (Alastair Mackenzie). This is essential, as the show only has six episodes to get Jasper to the point where he would shoot a man to save Christina, rather than 26 over two seasons.
Season 2 ends with Jasper discovering that Lanesborough is a dirty cop using Christina to keep his drug-smuggling ring from being busted. When she confronts him, he pulls a gun, but then Jasper busts in with a rifle. He saves Christina’s life by firing the weapon... not at Simon, but at the ceiling, before punching the guy out. Still, his use of a firearm is illegal, and he’s hauled off to jail as Season 2 concludes.
Professor T Season 3
The U.K. Season 3 begins in the same place as the Belgian one: Jasper in prison while everyone outside works to get him released. Again, the much shorter season demands efficiency, and Jasper reaches the courtroom by the season’s midpoint and is acquitted, thanks to Christina taking the fall.
However, he’s lost his job to his rival, and Christina’s resignation brings in a new boss, DCI Maiya Goswami (Sunetra Sarker), who doesn’t understand what the team sees in Jasper. He also attempts to quit therapy, but eventually returns, admitting he needs to keep learning. Then his replacement at Cambridge is murdered, getting him his job back after he solves the case and gets justice for a man he thought he hated. Also, Donckers and Dan get back together (again).
However, the series finale delivers two knockout blows. Jasper, confronted by his mother’s diaries, unblocks the memory of his father’s death, which includes the Dean destroying evidence of murder. He realizes Adelaide killed her own husband; she claims it was to protect them from his father’s drunken rage. Jasper slowly lets go of his anger and self-righteousness and forgives her. Unfortunately, the delay this causes means he misses catching up with Donckers. There is no one to help or stop her when the suspect in the case of the week mows her down with her car, and she dies in Winters’ arms.
Professor T Season 4
Season 4 is one of eventual healing and growth. Jasper spirals over Donckers’ death, regressing hard into OCD patterns and at first avoiding police work altogether. When he returns, his relationship with the self-destructive Winters is strained, and they both struggle to integrate the newest team member, clever but very green DC Chloe Highsmith (Rhian Blundell).
Jasper takes up drum lessons and continues therapy, while his relationship with Dr. Goldberg shifts from professional to personal and eventually takes its first steps toward romance. Meanwhile, after wrestling with anger and despair all season, Winters erupts at Goswami. When his subsequent therapy session is interrupted by a case, Winters unexpectedly gets closure from the suspect, who allows him to express his grief. Winters ends the season playing music at a Donckers tribute event, with Jasper joining in on the drums, empowered to go gloveless.
Although Jasper’s mother, Adelaide, is criminally underused this season, we get her equally eccentric sister, Zelda (Zoë Wanamaker). She has a romantic history with the Dean, which reignites when she arrives. But when Zelda starts dating another man, it lights a fire under the Dean, who boldly faces fresh rejection and proposes, making them the love story of the season. Zelda does nearly call it off, but nothing can stop the course of true love, and Season 4 ends with a proper wedding finale.
Season 5 will pick up after the wedding, with Jasper and Helena taking tentative first steps toward a romantic relationship. Meanwhile, Dan has a new girlfriend, Chloe learns to trust her instincts, and Zelda and Ingrid team up to form a terrifying duo. The U.K. Professor T is now entirely on its own, telling its own story the way it wants to. We look forward to discovering what’s next.
(This post was originally published 06.14.24. Updated 10.15.2026)
Professor T Season 5 debuts at 8 p.m. ET on Sunday, October 18, 2026, on most PBS stations and the PBS app and will air and stream weekly through the end of November. All six episodes are now available as an early release binge drop for PBS Passport members and on the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel. As always, check your local streaming service/listings.
Seasons 1 through 4 of the U.K. series are also available to stream on PBS Passport, along with all three seasons of the Belgian version. The four-season German version and the one-season French and Czech versions are currently unavailable to stream in the U.S.
