Idris Elba is............LUTHER!

[Groo The Perverted]

UPDATE: MAY 6th 2011: SEASON 2 "ANNOUNCE" Trailer Has Been Released. See bottom of this post.

The Wire actor Idris Elba is to star in a new BBC1 crime drama, Luther, about a detective who is "simmering with anger and rage".

London-born Elba, who played the drug dealer Stringer Bell in the acclaimed Baltimore crime drama, will play the title role of John Luther in the new six-part BBC1 drama.

The series will take the crime genre and turn it on its head, according to the BBC, with viewers knowing the identity of the murderer from the start of each episode in a bid to focus the drama on the "psychic duel between hunter and quarry, who sometimes have more in common than either would like to think".

Elba said: "He's a challenging and exciting character because he's so complex. While he's capable of great kindness and loyalty, sometimes he steps over the edge of madness – simmering with anger and rage."

Elba previously complained in a Guardian interview in May about the lack of roles on British TV for black actors, saying he had to go to Hollywood to get his break. "Unlike here, in the US there are lead roles for black actors … I realised that if I wanted to be all I could be, I would have to go to the US," he said.

The drama is being written by the suspense novelist Neil Cross, who was the lead writer on Spooks for the last two series, and it will be made in-house by the BBC. Filming begins this autumn for transmission next year.

"It's an intense psychological thriller which examines not only human depravity but the complex nature of love … and how it's often this – our finest attribute – that leads us into darkness," said Cross.

Season 2 ANNOUNCE Trailer:

YouTube - Luther - New Series 2011 Trailer - BBC One