Professor T returns to ITV1 this September, and one question has stayed on fans’ minds since the dramatic series one finale – did Professor T kill his father?
Professor Jasper Tempest, played by Ben Miller, is often riddled with traumatic flashbacks and memories to his childhood.
Viewers know that his father was repeatedly violent and abusive.
In series two, the Professor finally decides he is ready for therapy, but will we finally learn exactly what happened to his father?
Here’s what we know so far…
***Warning: spoilers from series one of Professor T ahead***
Professor T and his childhood home…
In the first episode of Professor T series 1, the genius mastermind was determined not to let his mother sell the home he grew up in.
His mother constantly mentioned that the house was filled with bad memories.
But, nonetheless, that’s where Professor T wanted to call home.
The first episode showed Jasper living in his own flat but, after stopping outside his childhood home, he decided he wanted to take the home off the market.
Viewers saw Professor Tempest reliving a memory of his father shouting at him on a set of swings.
The first episode ended with Jasper returning to his childhood home, before we saw an image of a man, presumably his father, who was hanging from the ceiling in what looked like a suicide.
But fans of the show know that the Professor often has trippy moments and memories where we can’t tell what’s real and what’s not.
Did Professor T’s father kill himself? Or did Jasper himself take revenge against his father?
Did Professor T kill his father?
For much of Professor T series 1, viewers believed that Professor T’s father killed himself.
However, later in the series, a new memory revealed quite the opposite.
In the series one finale of Professor T, Jasper and the team worked on a case where a young man confessed to killing his own father.
As the boy confessed to killing and trying to burn his father’s body, the Professor became clearly affected and excused himself to return home.
As he arrived at his childhood home, we kept switching between the present day and flashbacks to a young Jasper.
Lifting a gun off his mantlepiece, the present-day Jasper walked through his home.
But, we then saw a childhood memory of the Professor’s birthday.
It started off surprisingly well, and it seemed like the Professor had at least one happy childhood memory.
But it quickly turned dark, as his father once again grew violent against his mother.
The young Jasper tried to defend his mother, but his father pushed him away.
The audience saw the modern-day Jasper holding a gun, alongside a young Jasper also holding up a gun to his father.
The episode ended just as the Professor’s father shouted at a young Jasper: “Shoot me!”
A gunshot is heard, but it’s unclear if the gunshot was fired in the present day or back in Jasper’s memory.
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Professor T and his father: Jasper’s new therapy sessions…
Series two begins with Jasper finally being ready to go to therapy and face what happened in his childhood.
Christina told the Professor last series that he had to forgive himself before he would be ready to love again.
Maybe that means that he killed his father after all…
Jasper’s overbearing mother, played by Frances de la Tour, was reluctant to let him try traditional psychotherapy.
She encouraged him to leave the past in the past.
But, as Jasper sees Christina in a new relationship with fellow police officer Simon in Professor T series 2, he is determined to work through his past to win her back.
So, through Jasper’s therapy sessions with Dr Helena and intimacy lessons with his assistant Ms Snares, will we finally learn exactly what happened to Professor’s T father?
Professor T returns to ITV on Friday September 16 2022 at 9pm. The series is also available on Britbox.
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