LUTHER IS BACK CHASING KILLERS
AND A FILM IS IN THE PIPELINE
THIS story is all about Idris Elba and his awarding-winning portrayal of DCI John Luther. But just for a minute can it be about me? When it comes to television shows I enjoy, crime dramas aren’t my preferred genre – in fact, they stress me out.
I get involved in shows, the characters become my friends and if anyone I like dies, I get very upset. Why, then, does a show about an obsessive and sometimes dark detective investigating even darker crimes attract me?
Well, Luther has all the ingredients a great show needs. An experienced leading man in Elba, a great writer in Neil Cross and one of my favourite cities, London.
I also might just be a sucker for British television but, hey, who’s judging me.
Now back to Elba. The actor reprised his role as John Luther after the show went on a threeyear hiatus. Speaking on his return to the fifth season, Elba said, “I have a commitment to the show. I’ve done it for a few years now, and I always want to come back. I love the show, and I love playing the character. It’s a gift of a part. There are so many dimensions to play, and I really enjoy that. Also, we are very loyal to our fan base. We want them to get their fix.”
Elba said that Luther was still about the crime.
“It’s still a show about a detective and his obsession with murder and dark characters. This series is one storyline over four episodes, but of course from that storyline all these different tentacles spread out. It’s extremely complex.
“That’s the way Luther is. You unfold it and unfold it and unfold it. There is one criminal and that person gets into a lot of trouble. Some old characters also come back to the forefront.”
He added that they were still very prescriptive about the type of show it was.
“We don’t deviate from that. It’s a dark, quite violent procedural. But in this season, we have upped the scale. We’ve kept London as the spine – this just has more of a cinematic feel. But Luther is still Luther: he has just got older, as you can tell from my beard.”
The show sees the return of Ruth Wilson as Alice Morgan and welcomes Wunmi Mosaku as Detective Catherine Halliday and Hermione Norris as Dr Vivien Lake.
Elba has won five awards for his role as Luther, including a Screen Actors Guild Award for outstanding performance by a male actor in a miniseries or television movie.
He said that the role had taught him a number of things.
“As an actor, I’ve learned to find ways to keep the performance fresh and real. I’ve also learnt to trust the writing. It’s great when you have a really good writing partner like Neil.”
Although the star wants to see more Luther on TV, he also hinted at a plan for a Luther movie.
“We want to scale Luther up to a big feature film and take it to a much larger audience.
“Luther has all the ingredients to echo those classic films of the ’90s like Se7en. We would like to use that blueprint to create Luther the film,” said Elba. ■ Luther returns to screens from January 27 at 9pm on BCC First channel 119.