25 May 2010

Luther; a wonderfully preposterous TV cop drama

I was a bit late finding Luther. I watched the first two episodes back-to-back on iPlayer and was hooked. Idris Elba, in the title role, is great. And Ruth Wilson, as Alice, is sublime. Paul McGann must be good too, because I despise him in it.
It's all so ridiculous that it's compelling. And I love recognising all the different places around London, like Blackfriars Bridge and Daniel Libeskind's building in Hollway Road, used as a place where Paul Rhys's creepy character held a press conference. Also interesting that his character's macabre art gallery was at 73 Leonard Street, an address that I am sure a company I used to work for moved to. The Shoreditch area, specifically Leonard Street, is used a lot in the programme and is in real life littered with art and art galleries, one place even has a suitable macabre name to tie in to this piece.
Top row: Cornhill, Old Broad Street, Leonard Street, Little Newport Street.
Middle row: Leonard Street, The Blackfriars pub, Holloway Road, Upper Street
Bottom row: Blackfriars Bridge above and below, Praed Street, Bow Street Police Station

5 comments:

  1. I'm a huge fan of Idris, but this show is awful.

    Cliched, contrived, waste of good actors (McGann, Wilson, MacIntosh, Reeves).

    The accents are truly hilarious... especially Saskia Reeves ~ it's a total mess.

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  2. Mike, I agree with you about SR's accent which comes and goes and at times is truly awful. Steve Macintosh's 'geezer' is corny too – he seems to play that role in almost everything he does on TV!
    But it's the OTT-ness of the thing I like; that you don't have to believe a word of it. Pure fantasy. So out there that it's pointless criticising. I could write a long list of all the things that are 'wrong' or clichéd with the series and it would include circuitous routes taken, other journeys that are supposed to be half hour away, St Katharine's Dock looking nothing like St Katharine's Dock... blah blah blah! .
    Last week's ep ending with the hammer attack was, I think, really good, but this last one got VERY VERY silly. Even for me!
    Still, I spose they are just trying to tie up the whole thing in 6 episodes.

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  3. Can anyone tell me where the last scene of episode six was filmed - its driving me mad?! Many thanks, Shane

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  4. It's the old Eurostar terminal at Waterloo. Nice to see it's being used for something as it's been the largest pigeon loft in england for years now... I can't understand why they couldn't have converted it into use as an Olympic venue

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  5. Thanks Jane - sure looks too good to just be left abandoned! Really enjoyed the series, let's hope it gets a second series... Shane

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Thanks, Jane