Binge on the first five series of Idris Elba’s troubled ’tec

Idris Elba (below) is the brilliant but troubled cop DCI John Luther. In the first episode of the first series – there are five – he is investigating Alice Morgan (Ruth Wilson), who is suspected of murdering her parents. Morgan, too, is brilliant – she went to Oxford at 13 and completed a PhD in astrophysics at 18 – but she is also a psychopath. She becomes Luther’s companion and sometimes his quarry. Pretty much everything about the show is wildly implausible but it’s also hugely entertaining, although you might find yourself thinking that, just once, it might be nice to have a TV detective who actually does things by the book.

BBC iPlayer, series 1-5, available now