‘MUM WAS A STAUNCH CATHOLIC - but she couldn’t quite convert me!’
Idris Elba says the uber-religious character in his sitcom, InTheLong Run, is based on his own mother…
‘Costumes, hair, cars... it’s uncorking the Eighties!’
He and his wife, Sabrina, contracted Coronavirus in March, with Idris Elba later revealing he’s ‘humbled to be alive’. Now the Hollywood star is back on the small screen in Sky’s InTheLongRun. Set on a London housing estate and based loosely on his upbringing in Hackney (after his family moved there from Sierra Leone, when he was 12), it’s filled with fun, laughter and Eighties nostalgia. Here, Idris, 47, gives us an insight into the vibrant new series – as well as dropping quite the bombshell about reviving his iconic role as Luther…
Idris, your character Walter’s mum, Ellen, arrives in London this series, doesn’t she?
Yes. It’s a big, big deal for Mum to come over from Africa. Mama has been writing to us every week, so she has expectations of what she’s coming to see in London! She is really based on my mum. My mum was a staunch Roman Catholic, going to church all her life, but she couldn’t quite convert me. My dad didn’t like to go to her church either ( he was a Muslim), but every now and then he was dragged there by his hair!
So, you expand on that story a bit…
We do. Walter wants to make good, he wants Mummy to know he’s a good lad, so he pretends he’s very religious. But his mum says, ‘Great, you can take a sermon then.’ And rather than giving up, he decides to give the sermon a go and you can imagine the comedy of errors…
All I can say is, Walter gets Madonna confused with Maradona!
The attention to detail on this show is amazing…
Oh, it’s got the costumes, it’s got the hairstyles, it’s got the cars, it’s got… Bill Bailey! The music. The speech, the look of the place! It’s… it’s like uncorking a bottle of fizz from the Eighties!
What about those rumours that your dark BBC drama Luther could return?
OK, although there is ‘no formal plan’, I have made it clear that I would like Luther to come back as a film. I can tell you we are this [ he crosses his fingers] close to making a film!
In The Long Run season 3 returns on Wednesday at 10pm on Sky One.