DARK MATTER
IDRIS ELBA IS BACK, AS DCI JOHN LUTHER HUNTS DOWN A NEW KIND OF EVIL…
What better way to start 2019 than by ensuring that you’re so scared of the dark, you become your electricity supplier’s new favourite customer?
Luther returns on New Year’s Day with a four-part series that’s going to run nightly, which will see
DCI Luther and his new partner DS Catherine Halliday (Wunmi Mosaku) on the trail of a depraved killer who seems to strike indiscriminately. Inside TV caught up with Idris Elba to find out how it felt to don the big coat again…
Are you pleased to be back in Luther-land?
Well, we’d been off for a while, so we wanted to come back and make a good season, and I was excited to get back into the coat and bring my character back to life! Luther is a tough show to make – it’s very gruelling and demands long hours – and because of the type of series it is, it’s quite depressing, if I’m honest.
But it’s a good bit of drama, and the fans really love it, so therefore we love making it.
Can you tell us what John is up against this time?
There are three or four different storylines all going on at the same time this season, which is very much part of the DNA of Luther – that idea of having to juggle. There are characters from the past that come back, then there are some really horrible bad guys and, of course, John himself is a complex and multi-layered detective. And I think he goes a step too far this time…
We saw Alice (Ruth Wilson) in the trailer – tell us more…
I could – but I won’t! There’s no doubt that audiences want to see Alice. Last season, there was a bit of ‘not sure what happened to her’ – I think I can safely say we answer that.
The show raises the bar for its scare factor every time – will this series go even further?
I’d like to say yes. When I read the scripts, I was like, “Whoa!” – but you never know. We very much stay with the DNA, but I think there’ll be things we haven’t seen in Luther before…