TV’s top detective is back,

IT HAS been quite a wait but British TV’s best detective show returns on New Year’s Day for a fifth series. And it couldn’t be darker, or the situation more tense, for Idris Elba’s uncompromising maverick DCI John Luther. Fittingly, we’re in a small screening room in a former courthouse in Shoreditch, east London, where the first episode gets a breathless reception. There is something different about this cop and it is not only because we haven’t seen Luther for almost four years.

We find him in a dingy flat, up against an old foe and still down on his luck but he has a deeper malaise. He still has his favourite overcoat though. What is it with detectives and their coats? Oh, and their trashy cars. Luther’s is an ancient, beaten-up Volvo. “The Volvo is a hybrid,” he says. “Just to let you know.”

Emmy-nominated writer Neil Cross has again plumbed the depths of his imagination, making some big promises in the process: “We wanted to make the biggest, scariest, darkest, most thrilling series of Luther there’s ever been.”

Judging by the first gory episode, which has the most novel and liberal application of roofing nails ever used in a criminal act, he may have succeeded. If you’re squeamish, this may not be the right show for you. Introducing the launch, BBC boss Charlotte Moore urged viewers “not to watch it alone”.

Luther faces a series of monstrous killings which become increasingly audacious. To make the situation even more trying, there’s a tangle of “leads and misdirection” – red herrings, to you and me.

A high-quality cast again join Luther for the four-part series, including Dermot Crowley as his slightly addled boss Detective Superintendent Martin Schenk and Patrick Malahide as the detective’s gangster foe George Cornelius. Luther also has a new partner, DS Catherine Halliday played by Bafta-winner Wunmi Mosaku.

Why the long wait?

“To be honest,” says Elba, “it’s one of those shows that wouldn’t work, in my personal opinion, if we did it year in, year out. It needs to be made into bite sizes. It’s very dark and I think for writer Neil Cross, the producers and my sanity, it’s better that it’s done that way.

“The truth is the writing takes a while and just getting the collaborators into the right place at the right time takes some effort. And we like it that way. I think the audience and the fans have grown to know that it won’t come every year.”

With an old adversary on the scene, how does the drama develop? “True to the Luther set-up, it just gets more complex,” says Elba, 46. “It’s never as straightforward as it seems initially. And this series is more complicated than usual. The director, Jamie Payne, has done a brilliant job to that end. He was very aware that that’s the way Luther is. You sort of unfold it, unfold it and unfold it and even though in this particular season there is just one antagonist, so many things fall out of that situation into a very complex web.

“And of course a certain character turns up and she isn’t there to give Christmas cards to anyone. She’s there to give Luther a big headache...”

Idris is referring to actress Ruth Wilson’s extraordinary murderer and psychopath Alice Morgan. She is undoubtedly his bête noire and her bizarre relationship with the detective has come to characterise the show.

A child genius, Alice met Luther after the murder of both of her parents. She was suspected of killing them but never proven guilty. Although she can be extremely volatile at times, she is also Luther’s greatest ally and his greatest temptation. But during the fourth series, she was seemingly quietly killed off. Ruth says: “Every interview I

‘You’re walking into a room and being the first person to examine death. It’s really hard work, tough’

do, everyone asks whether I’m coming back. People love Alice so I knew we had to bring her back. And when we bring her back, we’ve got to do it properly.”

Ruth, 36, says she had no idea that she was “killed off ” during the fourth series: “I didn’t know... I wasn’t available during that time,” she said. “So when it came back, I was keen to come back.”

Then mid-launch, with the same unpredictability that fuels her TV character, she leaves the Q&A, politely asking the audience: “Why aren’t you all watching the final episode of Mrs Wilson?” which was being broadcast at that very moment on BBC One.

Elba says the show’s attention to detail makes Luther difficult to film.

“It’s crammed as you can tell and all of those little details are written, so that makes for a very gruelling schedule. We’re shooting in winter and the hours are shorter. What’s particularly good about this season is that it’s one movie with four big episodes, if you like. It’s really scary.”

LUTHER is, at times, a disturbed character in a very harrowing environment and carnage lies around every street corner. Does he try to stay positive? “I do but during this series we were filming next to Hampstead Cemetery in the middle of the night. But I tell you what was funny-but-not-funny... In the scene involving Hermione Norris [a guest star] in a car, well, that was real spitting from her at me. She really did that! I wanted to wipe it off immediately but no one was saying ‘Cut!’ Just say cut! I stood there frozen.”

So how does he get into character?

“When I first started the series I sat down with a detective in Lewisham, in south-east London. We talked about what is the toll that impacts on a murder detective. Essentially it’s the nature of absorbing all that energy, you know, walking into a room and being the first person to examine death. And we’re trying to recreate it as a real, visceral sort of crime. So for film-makers, it’s really hard work – it is tough.”

Norris interjects: “You just have to laugh a little more!” We talk about whether Luther could ever be filmed