Idris Elba returns to the dark side in Luther

Idris Elba discusses Luther, Madonna, and the Jungle Book, writes Shereen Low

Idris Elba is on a high. The Golden Globe-winning actor, who DJs on the side, took to the decks as the opening act for Madonna at her Berlin and London shows recently, gleefully sharing a photo of them together on stage afterwards on Twitter.

“Madonna is a legend. I met a beautiful person who has been working forever and is still going. We did an incredible show,” he admits, smiling.

The normally cool Elba, who also made his debut at Glastonbury this summer, said supporting Madge was a different experience.

“I’m standing by the curtain before I went on, and made the mistake of peeking to see who’s there and saw 17,000 people looking back,” the 43-year-old recalls. “I just entertained and played music. It’s such a buzz to perform.”

However, the key agenda is promoting his return to BBC One crime thriller, Luther, in which he reprises his role as the titular genius murder-solver, DCI John Luther.

The upcoming fourth series — a two-parter, once again written by the show’s New Zealand creator Neil Cross — comes more than two years after the third series, which aired in 2013.

The opening episode sees Luther hiding out in a cottage by the sea, away from the gritty East London, before a “monstrous” cannibalistic serial killer calls him back to his job.

While he admits playing Luther is “not easy”, the father-of-two — who has also created an album to accompany the series — says it’s also quite “cathartic” portraying the grumpy detective, especially when it comes to unleashing emotions around his father’s death from cancer in September 2013.

“Luther is very hard to play, and hard to be in. It’s a very dark show and it isn’t easy but it’s part of my job. I always go to Luther when I’m at my grumpiest. It’s like, ‘I feel s**t, let’s do some Luther’. Because if I do it when I’m happy, it’ll drag me down,” he says.

“Actually, I use Luther as a therapy session because there’s a lot of screaming and shouting. ‘That was really good acting’, people will say, but I wasn’t acting, I was really angry. It is definitely therapy for me.”

In this series, Luther is joined by some newcomers — Theo Bloom (Darren Boyd), DS Emma Lane (Game Of Thrones’ Rose Leslie) and the mysterious Megan Cantor (Laura Haddock).

After playing Luther for more than five years, Elba says he’s not quite ready to say goodbye to the character.

“I do want to keep playing John in some way or form, because I’m really attached to it. I won’t probably get written another character like that for me on TV. At the moment, John’s still very much alive in my heart and Neil’s heart. We just have to figure out how to keep it going.”

The US remake, which Elba would executive produce, is “in development”. There have been talks for a film adaptation too — and Elba likes the idea of a stage version as well.

“Secretly, I’ve been imagining Luther on stage. It’s crazy but why not? It could be a very small detailed version of it on stage,” he says.

“I’m not sure what the end game is. I want to make his [Luther’s] world bigger and give a slightly larger scale to the whole thing. There are definitely different ways to dissect it. I think it’s a big challenge to make a film, economically.”

Luther aside, Elba — who has also been linked with possibly taking on the role of James Bond in the future — has a number of movies coming up, including The Jungle Book, in which he voices tiger Shere Khan; Star Trek Beyond and Finding Dory, the sequel to Finding Nemo.

With questions about Bond off-limits, Elba is happy to comment on his Jungle Book role: “It’s a massive honour to be asked to play that character in a classic like that. But I did it because I wanted my children to watch something that was a classic and be a part of that.”

Luther returns to BBC One next Tuesday, December 15.