Ben Miller co-created Austin for Michael Theo after seeing Love on the Spectrum

Detailed summary

An actor, comedian, author and physics enthusiast, Ben Miller is a man of many talents. So, how did the son of English teachers become so obsessed with quantum physics? And how does a comic end up writing a spy thriller?

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.

Opening of the article, excerpted from ABC Science. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.