John Luther

DCI John Luther is the titular protagonist of the BBC psychological crime drama series Luther. He is a detective who works for the Metropolitan Police Service, in the Serious Crime Unit and legendary figure in London's police force both for his dedication and his ingenious approaches to solving cases. Unfortunately, these approaches often involve resorting to highly corrupt and pragmatic tactics, such as planting evidence on people who are clearly guilty and consulting with a murderer, causing a lot of people to view him as a 'dirty cop'.

He is portrayed by Idris Elba.

Personality
DCI John Luther is an incredibly talented detective, with the ability to analyse situations quickly and put himself in the shoes of the criminal to understand what they are thinking and how they can be caught. Luthers ability to do this may have resulted from extensive dectective work, as Luther is a workaholic and uses work to mask over problems he has in his personal life. In Episode 1, Series 1, Luther becomes heavily involved in the Alice Morgan case, despite having nothing to go on, correlating with issues with his wife Zoey. Luther's philosophy is that his job involves defending the dead who cannot defend themselves. Alice figures this out with the interview she has with Zoey. As an empathic individual working tirelessly to keep London safe, Luther's own home is very meagre. He possesses very little, despite working in his capacity for several years. The things which he does have, such as his car, are usually very old but are durable. Luther doesn't seem to mind living it rough and lives very humbly. Alice Morgan, an arch-enemy-turned-friend, was the opposite, living a wealthy and decadent life, with a love of luxury. In contrast to Luther's view of love as one of the most important things in the world, Alice lost faith in love early in life, claiming "all it does is make us corrupt". When she met Luther, her faith in love was revived and she comes to call Luther a "friend" for saving her from a meaningless life.