Watch Idris Elba Unleash Half-Mad Cop In New BBC Crime Drama, Luther

May 5, 2010 by M. Gosho Oakes  
Filed under TV

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Booker Prize nominated British writer Neil Cross (long listed for his 2004 novel Always The Sun, also the lead writer for the BBC TV series Spooks) penned the new crime drama series everyone’s talking about over here: Luther, starring British actor and ‘heartthrob’ Idris Elba as Detective Chief Inspector John Luther.

Episode one kicked off on BBC 1 yesterday, which I’m still digesting to an extent – but I have a feeling I’m going to love this show by the time the second one airs. I’m kinda slow adjusting to watching a familiar actor in new role… However, from what I’ve seen so far, I think he conveys emotion well in this role; it actually made for uncomfortable viewing at times. Which in this case, is a good thing.

[For our international readers in particular, I found a stream online you can all watch - if that's what you're here for, scroll straight to the bottom of this post and press play...]

For anyone curious – and I found this vaguely interesting – show creator Neil Cross currently has a piece on the BBC site explaining the concept of the show and the highlights of making it all come together. Excerpts:

On casting Idris Elba:

“A particular high point has to be casting Idris Elba,” he writes. “We wanted the show to be special, so when it came to casting our leading man we’d decided to be ambitious, to set the bar high, thinking: don’t ask, don’t get… Idris was on the list… because Idris is pretty much on everyone’s list. But his name was waaaaaay up there, up above the cloud line. So when I got the phone call saying we’d got him – that was a good moment; as good as these moments get, I think.”

On being influenced by Columbo:

“I grew up loving Columbo, and still love it. But Columbo’s format – the ‘howcatchem’, or inverted detective story – wasn’t really played to accentuate the drama. Lieutenant Columbo was rarely at any personal risk (because that’s not we wanted to see) and we knew he’d always get his killer in the end. What we didn’t know was how – which played a big part in making that show so incomparably satisfying.

“The inverted detective story format hadn’t really been revisited since Columbo ended, not that I know of anyway. So I thought it might be exciting to portray it as a kind of psychological duel between this driven, half-mad cop and the depraved criminals he hunts. So we know who Luther has to catch. What we don’t know is how on earth he’s going to do it.”

Read Neil Cross’ full introductory piece over at the BBC.

UK viewers can watch the first episode of Luther on BBC iPlayer.

Everyone else, press play…