The six-part first season of British psychological crime drama Luther, starring Idris Elba (The Wire), will start on SABC3 on Thursday 5 April at 8pm.
A brilliant detective tormented by the darker side of humanity, Luther shines a light where others fear to tread, into the hearts and minds of psychopaths and killers, and the shadowy spaces of his own soul.
Luther is driven by Elba as the intellectually brilliant but emotionally impulsive Detective Chief Inspector John Luther. For Luther, his profession is a vocation rather than a job. He serves his own idea of a moral order as much as rules and codes of criminal law. Throughout the series we see Luther face a succession of psychological duels between hunter and hunted, predator and prey. We encounter his capacity for violence as well as his kindness; his sudden vulnerability and dizzying, visionary mind; why his wife left him for another man, and why his colleagues are frequently left open-mouthed in awe.
However as the intensity of his convictions combine with the strength of his passions, they provoke the question of whether Luther is a force for good or a man hell bent on self-destruction. Luther’s confidante is his arch-enemy Alice (Ruth Wilson), a beautiful multiple murderess who evades his grasp early on, and with whom he becomes locked in a lethal battle of wits.
As the stakes get ever higher and more personal, Luther’s lonely path pulls him towards the very edge of temptation. Will his personal demons prove to be as dangerous as any of the criminals he pursues?
Elba won a Golden Globe in January 2012 for his portrayal of Luther.
