From Paddington to physics, there's a common thread to Ben Miller's career

It's 7am and Ben Miller is sitting at his laptop in the kitchen of his Cotswolds cottage, a goldendoodle named Stevie Nicks resting at his feet. 

This is where the English actor writes — and where he occasionally fields questions from journalists beamed in from afar. 

While perhaps best known in Australia as Julian Hartswood, the father of Michael Theo's character in ABC iview's Austin, Miller has had a 30-year career in film and television.

His acting credits include movies such as Johnny English, alongside Rowan Atkinson, as well as Paddington 2 and Paddington in Peru. On the small screen, he's starred in Death in Paradise and Professor T, and even donned pantaloons to play the hapless Lord Featherington in Bridgerton.  

Then there are the children's books Miller has written — the Fairytale Woods series and The Day I Fell Into a Fairytale, to name a couple. His first adult novel, a historical spy thriller titled A Very Dangerous Pursuit, was released earlier this year.  

But Miller began his career in comedy, as part of a duo called Armstrong and Miller. Before that, he was completing a PhD in physics at the University of Cambridge. 

Each of these pursuits might sound disparate at first, but Miller insists there's a common thread. 

How did the son of English teachers become so obsessed with quantum physics?

They were also into science. My dad was also into maths. We used to do a fair amount of maths at home. 

It was quantum physics that everyone was so into in the 80s. It was the most incredible subject because quantum physics is a bizarre theory that turns out to be true. It's so weird. The idea that there's no such thing as an object [and that] things are both particles and waves … it's just nuts. The fact that it's actually the most accurate physical theory that we've ever created — it's still going strong. So, we were just big fans of physics. 

After writing several children's books, why did you decide to release your first fiction book for adults?

I started writing science books and then I got to writing children's books and [adult fiction] felt like a natural thing to try next. And I've enjoyed it. But I'm also writing the sort of stories I think kids who grew up reading my children's books would like to read. 

As well as being an author and a science enthusiast, you're also a comedian and an actor. If someone knew you for only one of those things, which would you want it to be?

I don't think I could cope with just doing one. Acting is obviously serving someone else's story. I love writing. I love being part of telling stories and I really like all kinds of stories. I'm [also] very interested in tech. I've got this whole thing that I'm doing about protecting actors from AI. I love science. But the common thread is storytelling … I think of it all as being the same job.  

And one of the things that I'm lucky in is getting to travel. I love coming to Australia to film Austin. If I didn't act, I probably wouldn't get a chance to travel so much and that's a big part of it for me. I loved being in Australia for those three seasons [of Austin] we've done so far. We were in Canberra for the previous two seasons and we were in Adelaide. I love Canberra! 

What is it about Canberra that you love so much?

It's such a liveable city [and] it's so green. I love the old Parliament [House], I love all those old buildings. There's a whole new vibey area of Canberra that has popped up with lots of cool bars and restaurants. 

You're one of the stars of Austin, but you also helped bring it to life. How did the series come about? 

Darren Ashton, the director [of Austin], is an old friend of mine. We first worked together on a film called Razzle Dazzle [in 2007]. I loved that film, I loved the way it turned out, and I loved working with Darren. 

He came to stay with me here in the Cotswolds … he showed me a bit of Love on the Spectrum — showed me Michael [Theo] — and I was immediately smitten. 

I remember sitting at this kitchen table saying, 'Do you think this guy could act, because I think he's amazing.' 

And then we just set about creating a show for Michael.  

How much care goes into depicting a neurodivergent character like Austin on the screen?  

The story is not that Austin is neurodivergent. He just happens to be a character who happens to be neurodivergent. The story is about the journey we all go on to try and find ourselves. To go from childhood to adulthood [and] to become independent. To lovingly outgrow our parents. And for me, the big promise of Austin was that Austin would find love and find a partner and get married.

[Michael] really wanted to be in a relationship and so Austin for me is a kind of wish fulfilment on behalf of Michael and the audience. We want to see him meet someone and fall in love and have all the ups and downs that involves, and to get married. 

It's about that journey that everybody goes on.

Your character in the series Professor T is also neurodivergent. What type of preparation did you do to play this character? 

Professor T has OCD [Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder] and he's germophobic. In fact, he constantly wears surgical gloves because he doesn't want to touch anything … I also suffer from OCD, so I was very interested to play that character.

I'm not germophobic, but I'm probably on the autistic spectrum and I've also got OCD, so it's fantastic. 

Is it harder to make people laugh or is it harder to make people care about a character?

It's hard to do both. It's slightly different if you're doing something on film or if you're doing something live. 

If you're doing something live that's meant to be funny and nobody laughs, that is one of the worst experiences you can have as a human being.

Austin tries to do both. To move people, you've got to get under the skin of a character. You've got to understand what's at stake for Austin, and usually that's some kind of version of the trauma that the character has experienced.

It's the same in Professor T. I promise you that when you turn it on, you will not like Professor T … he's a very unpleasant person. But, the more you watch it, the more you start to see that his bruteness, abruptness and arrogance are like a protective shell.

The reason I think Professor T is such an emotional show to watch is that he actively tries to make you dislike him [but then] you stick with it and begin to understand him a bit. You identify [with him] on a deep level then, because we all suffer from trauma, we all cope with it, and we all keep going forward. And what can be very moving and even healing is to empathise and have compassion for someone else's trauma.

To me, laughter and crying are not that different. They're both reactions to the sort of exquisite suffering of life. I love shows that do both. 

Quotes lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

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