BBC1
Divan or bedstead? It’s the old debate. I favour a divan myself as it reduces the chances of a lunatic with ski mask and hard on hiding beneath it to zero. Emily Hammond could have done with this insight when she made her choice. Her killer lurked under her bed like some fairytale monster and boy it’s a creepy site when he slithers into view. Your boy John Luther is on the case though so while Emily has forfeited her life she’s got the best lunatic on the force on the case. Welcome back, John! And sorry for your loss Emily. Bummer. Fucker did a real number on her as well – dressed up in fetish gear, torn fishnets, leather slut skirt, creepy wig and worst of all a Bo Selecta style facemask. “Siouxsie and the Banshees look” Luther notes, somewhat redundantly like Robert Smith is going to be the killer or something. That’s not possible because your killer is a crazyman in a tight woolly black hat. While we’re making salient band associations he could be Geno-era Dexys Midnight Runners’ Big Jimmy Paterson. 30 years ago a character just like him the police christened The Shoreditch Creeper ran through a series of home invasion toe suckings that escalated into murder. Only a matter of time before Luther zones in on him.
Too bad, then, that internal affairs (including an angry Scotsman who is surely some kind of cousin of The Hound from Game of Thrones) are sticking him on some bullshit revenge killing, making Ripley wear a wire, just waiting for John to make one of his trademark infringements of due process so they can nail the son of a bitch. Nothing could ever be simple for Luther, something confirmed when he rear ends a pretty vintage clothing worker Mary (Sienna Guillory) and finds himself mired in a Mexican flirt off with the dame. If she’s not abducted or killed by the end of this series it’s a fucking miracle.
Fucker did a real number on her as well – dressed up in fetish gear, torn fishnets, leather slut skirt, creepy wig and worst of all a Bo Selecta style facemask. “Siouxsie and the Banshees look” Luther notes, somewhat redundantly like Robert Smith is going to be the killer or something.
It’s a powerful opener to season 3. Neil Cross has cut out some of the more ludicrous dialogue (which, if I’m honest, I kind of miss), The Creeper is a weird terrifying goon and Idris Elba continues to make Luther’s inevitable swan dive into calamity unmissable. If you wonder where Mad Alice is then your guess is as good as mine but I have a feeling that deranged skank will show her face at some point making everything fantastic beyond reckoning.
The verdict: Luther – King.
Marks out of 10: 8