Luther Information

Luther is a British psychological crime drama television series starring Idris Elba as the title character Detective Chief Inspector John Luther. A first series of six episodes was broadcast on BBC One from 4 May to 8 June 2010. The second series of four episodes was shown on BBC One in summer 2011. During the 2011 Edinburgh TV Festival, BBC One controller Danny Cohen announced a third series, which ran from 2 to 23 July 2013.

The character of Luther is played by Idris Elba, who won the Golden Globe award for best actor in a miniseries at the 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards in 2012, a year after his nomination in 2011.

Plot

John Luther is a Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) working for the Serious Crime Unit in series one, and the new Serious and Serial Crime Unit in series two and three. A dedicated police officer, Luther is obsessive, possessed, and sometimes dangerous in the violence of his fixations. However, Luther has paid a heavy price for his dedication; he has never been able to prevent himself from being consumed by the darkness of the crimes with which he deals. For Luther, the job always comes first. His dedication is a curse and a blessing, both for him and those close to him. He is unable to arrest Alice Morgan, the murderer in the first episode, and for the rest of the first series she becomes his confidante, giving him an insight into the motivations of other criminals.

Cast and characters

Name	Portrayed by	Series 1	Series 2	Series 3	Ref(s)
John Luther	Idris Elba	colspan=3 }}
Alice Morgan	Ruth Wilson		colspan=2
Justin Ripley	Warren Brown	colspan=3 }}
Martin Schenk	Dermot Crowley	}}	colspan=2 }}
Benny 'Deadhead' Silver	Michael Smiley		colspan=2
Erin Gray	Nikki Amuka-Bird		}}	}}
Mary Day	Sienna Guillory	colspan=2
George Stark	David O'Hara	colspan=2	}}
Zoe Luther	Indira Varma		colspan=2
Ian Reed	Steven Mackintosh	}}	colspan=2
Rose Teller	Saskia Reeves	}}	colspan=2
Mark North	Paul McGann
Caroline Jones	Kierston Wareing
Jenny Jones	Aimee-Ffion Edwards
Baba	Pam Ferris
Frank Hodge	Alan Williams
Toby Kent	David Dawson

Episodes

Production

Inspiration

Creator Neil Cross has said that Luther is influenced by both Sherlock Holmes and Columbo; the nature of Luther's intellect and its application to solving crimes is comparable to Holmes', whereas the show's use of the inverted detective format was inspired by Columbo.

Filming

The first series was filmed in and around London, England, and produced by BBC Drama Productions. Brian Kirk, Sam Miller and Stefan Schwartz. Each directed two episodes and series creator Neil Cross wrote all six of the episodes. Leila Kirkpatrick was the line producer for the entire series and Katie Swinden was the producer for a number of episodes. Tim Fleming provided series cinematography for two episodes. Katie Weiland and Victoria Boydell were involved in the series' film editing, with Weiland editing two episodes. Andy Morgan was responsible for the entire series' casting, Paul Cross provided production design and Adam A. Makin was behind the series' art direction.

Series 1 (2010)

The first series of Luther aired in Summer 2010 and received positive reviews from critics, getting an average of 5.9 million viewers per episode.

Series 2 (2011)

The BBC announced on 28 August 2010 it had recommissioned Luther for a second series for 2011 and filming started in late September/early October 2010. Originally planned to be broadcast as two two-hour long episodes, it is shown as four one-hour episodes. The first episode of series two was shown on BBC One on Tuesday 14 June.

Series 3 (2013)

The BBC One controller announced in August 2011 that a third series had been commissioned.

On 1 November 2012, the BBC Luther website and Facebook page announced the third series will consist of four episodes. Filming started in November 2012. Sienna Guillory had been cast to play Luther's new love interest. Further guest stars include Lucian Msamati and Ned Dennehy. The third series began airing on 2 July 2013 and concluded on 23 July.

Spin-offs

As early as 2011, Idris Elba had expressed his enthusiasm for making a film adaptation of the series, saying, "That's where the ultimate Luther story will unfold, is in the big silver screen "? London as a huge backdrop and a very menacing, horrible character to play against." During a BBC Radio 4 interview in March 2012, co-creator Neil Cross revealed that plans were being made for a Luther film that would begin production at the conclusion of the third series, the show's last. In May 2012, Elba stated in an interview that the third series would serve as the lead-in for the planned film.

In September 2012, Neil Cross announced that he was in the process of creating a spin-off of Luther centered around the character of Alice Morgan, starring Ruth Wilson. Cross stated, "The BBC is very interested in the project. The only real question would be how many and how often we would do it - whether it would be a one-off miniseries or a returning miniseries, a co-production or not."

Reception

The Guardians Stuart Heritage was initially critical of the show, comparing it to the American series FlashForward in that both series arrived with a large amount of hype but delivered an anticlimactic end product. However, by the fifth episode, Heritage updated his views, calling it a "slightly sillier Silence of the Lambs" and Idris Elba's best work since The Wire.

Serena Davies in The Daily Telegraph called it "formulaic" and Tom Sutcliffe in The Independent thought "Luther is more a loose constellation of cop-show clichés than a fully formed character, but Elba brings the clichés to life".

Ratings steadily decreased over the course of the series. The fifth episode drew the lowest of the series thus far. However, fellow BBC programmes Holby City and EastEnders also suffered on the night as they were up against ITV's Britain's Got Talent and Coronation Street.

Critical praise greeted Luther's second-series broadcast in the United States. Reviews in Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and on National Public Radio highlighted the brooding tone, Elba's performance, and strong writing. In the third quarter of 2011, the top-rated shows on BBC America were Doctor Who, Top Gear, and Luther, which together gained the network its highest quarterly ratings ever.

International broadcast

The first series of the show premiered in Australia on ABC1 on 15 October 2010 and in the United States on BBC America two days later. It was also broadcast in Germany (Series 1: September/October 2011; Series 2: March 2012) where it was dubbed and cut, in France on Canal+ and in Poland on Ale Kino Plus channel. The second series debuted in the United States on BBC America on 29 September 2011 and Australia on ABC1 on 24 February 2012. The third series is scheduled to debut in the United States on BBC America on four consecutive nights beginning 3 September 2013.

The first series was broadcast in Turkey starting January 2012. It was also broadcast as part of a marathon on 14 July 2012 on the BET network in the US and officially began airing on its sister channel Centric on 16 July 2012.

The South Korean cable channel Channel N also aired the series.

Soundtrack

Luther's soundtrack is composed by Paul Englishby, who has so far composed the music to all three series. Englishby also incorporates many pop and rock songs into the soundtrack, using these generally in the end credits. A CD called Luther - Songs and Score From Series 1, 2 and 3 will be released on 19 August 2013 and will contain many of the themes and songs used in Luther.

Accolades

2011

• Nominated: Golden Globe Award for Best Actor " Miniseries or Television Film: Idris Elba
• Nominated: NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Television Movie, Mini-Series, or Dramatic Special
• Won: NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie, Mini-Series, or Dramatic Special: Idris Elba
• Nominated: Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie: Idris Elba

2012

• Won: Golden Globe Award for Best Actor " Miniseries or Television Film: Idris Elba
• Nominated: Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries or Movie
• Nominated: Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie: Idris Elba
• Nominated: Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie, or Dramatic Special: Sam Miller
• Nominated: Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie, or Dramatic Special: Neil Cross

See also

• Luther: The Calling, a novel written by Neil Cross which is a prequel to the first series