BBC releases video announcing third Luther series

http://www.metro.co.uk/tv/916672-bbc-releases-video-announcing-third-luther-series-to-be-filmed-this-month

Luther episode 2.2

Episode 2 of the new series picks up where the last one left off. Ripley has been kidnapped by the Punch killer and Luther has to find him.
Actually Luther is a bit busy. As well as dealing with the Ripley situation and foiling Punch's next plot he gets a phone call from the mother of the girl he rescued from the sex people in the previous episode. He pops around to her apartment and gets a nail hammered through his hand to get his attention. Some Bad People want him to silence a guy in witness protection. If he doesn't they will kill the mother and the girl he rescued - the one currently handcuffed to Mark's chair.

You see, when I type that out it sounds silly. But while I'm watching it I enjoy it.

So Luther has to find the witness protection guy and tells him to amend his statement. Then it's back to the Ripley situation. Eventually they work out Punch's plan which I won't spoil in case you've not seen the episode, but it is a bit chilling.

By now the episode is almost over, but where is Alice Morgan. It's why I'm watching after all! Luther gets back to his crummy flat and sure enough there is Alice waiting for him. She's obviously used the key card we almost glimpsed in the apple last week. She still wants to run off into the sunset with Luther but he says no. I wonder if such refusals will annoy her...

Overall an entertaining episode but I would have liked to have seen Alice break out of the secure hospital. There's an episode right there. Remember in the first series when she impersonated a doctor, started a fire, lured away a police guard, all so she could kill the serial killer who woke up from the coma?

And now that I've typed it I see that it all sounds a little silly. But it's pure entertainment.

A couple of Ruth sightings

Here's a non-story titled "Idris Elba Parties With Co-Star Ruth Wilson To Celebrate 'Luther' Return".

http://www.taletela.com/news/7364/idris-elba-parties-with-co-star-ruth-wilson-to-celebrate-luther-return

And here are a couple of photos of Ruth attending the 'Great British Talent Event'.

http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/F-o5miYTG71/The+Great+British+Talent+Event/7aWMWy38rIH/Ruth+Wilson

Luther episode 2.1

"Now what?"

That was the question asked in the last episode of the first series when Luther, Alice and Mark stood over the body of Ian Reed as they listened to the sound of approaching sirens. It was also the first line of the new series as we are given a close up of Ruth as Alice Morgan being questioned in a secure hospital. It appears she's being held there for the murder of Ian Reed. Fair enough as she did it.

Meanwhile we see Luther facing a new day in a very run-down tower block. He plays Russian Roulette. Click. OK, maybe tomorrow. Later he is playing chess with Mark, which is an amusing sight.

Luther is now heading a team investigating serial killers and he recruits his former partner Ripley who has been demoted to being a uniform copper after preventing Luther getting shot by a sniper.

The killer in this episode is quite a nasty piece of work. Well he would be in an episode of Luther. This one wears a Punch mask and is quite happy to perform to the CCTV cameras as he kills his victims.

In the middle of the episode Luther has time to visit Alice in hospital. They speak of Luther leaving his police job and going traveling to see "the desert" and "see some sharks". Alice expresses her desire to see the Very Large Array of radio telescopes in New Mexico, a nice reminder of her physicist background. "It's quite spectacular," she whispers, with her eyes closed. Then suggests "we could go togeather". But it all feels like they are talking in code. What is not being said I wonder?

Luther makes a great song and dance (metaphorically speaking) about taking an apple from his pocket and eating it. Then he tells Alice he has to go catch "madmen". Outside the hospital he throes the apple over the wall, but not until he pushed something inside. Something that looks like a card. On the other side of the wall Alice sees the apple and picks it up. She is smiling. You've got to look carefully at the apple, just above her little finger...

This episode marks a departure from the first series as things are not wrapped up in 60 minutes. As the end of the episode approaches it becomes clear that the killer will not be caught before the end credits. Indeed there is a delicious cliffhanger after some handy misdirection.

A strong opening episode. I look forward to the next one.

Luther Series 2 reminder

Just a reminder that the first episode of Luther series 2 is on BBC1 tonight. I will hopefully post some comments on the episode after seeing it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00vk2mq

Luther series 2 broadcast date

Just a quick note to say that Luther returns to BBC1 on Tuesday 14 June 2011

Ruth Wilson: 'I'm drawn to damaged characters'

It looks like today's Observer newspaper had an article on Ruth. It includes the welcome news that Luther will be back on our screens in June.

Before Ruth Wilson inhabits a character on stage or screen, she likes to research the role in depth to figure out what makes her tick. Faced with playing Alice Morgan in the cop series Luther (which premiered last year on BBC1 and returns for a second series next month), she watched the Hannibal Lecter films and read the philosopher John Gray's bleak account of human nature, Straw Dogs.

"I'm drawn to damaged, complicated characters," Wilson, 29, tells me over coffee at the National theatre. She's not kidding. Alice Morgan is a psychotic physicist who murders her parents at the start of Luther and views human relations in terms of energy transfer and dark matter – although there is more chemistry than physics in her relationship with Idris Elba's eponymous detective, to whom she unexpectedly warms during the first series. "What really excites me is the unknown," Wilson says, "and getting to grips with something you have no idea about."

She's also appearing this summer in a Donmar production of Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie, as a prostitute who embarks on a sea voyage with her estranged father. To prepare for the title role, Wilson travelled to Minnesota, at her own expense, "to get Anna's accent, but also to research the area where she's from. I spent two days digging up information in a library and talking to professors," she says, with the enthusiasm of a history student – which she was, before training as an actor at Lamda. "I felt like a kid in a sweet shop."

Wilson is amiable in conversation – her long, dramatic mouth curves easily into a mischievous smile – but she has had to fight hard for good parts. "My remit has always been: I want to do something different from the last thing I've done." She made her breakthrough playing Jane Eyre in a 2006 BBC mini-series opposite Toby Stephens. Then she was Stella to Rachel Weisz's Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire at the Donmar (winning herself an Olivier). She rubbed shoulders with Ian McKellen on an American TV remake of The Prisoner and her co-star in Anna Christie is Jude Law. Does proximity to so much fame make her head spin? "Not really," she shrugs. "I don't hold much store by it. I end up teasing them a bit."

She concedes that she was excited to work with Idris Elba. "I loved The Wire and I thought: wouldn't it be great to work with Stringer Bell. A year later I was pinching myself." At their first read-through, Elba told her how much he loved her in Jane Eyre and she immediately called his bluff: "You never watched Jane Eyre!" She had "enormous fun" doing Luther, but would like to try something different now. "My parents are desperate, they keep saying: 'Please stop doing these angsty roles; make it easier for us.' So, yeah, I'd love to do some comedy." Given her versatility, and that mischievous grin, it sounds like an idea worth encouraging.

• Luther returns to BBC1 in early June.

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Luther and Ruth in new BBC drama trailer

Not much to report, except that today on the BBC I caught a glimpse of a trailer for some of their upcoming dramas. Included in the mix was the new series of Luther and I'm pleased to report I spotted Ruth. Looks like Alice returns to cause more mischief! Look out for her about 44 seconds in...