Serialised Storytelling

Neil Cross, comics and ‘Luther’

Tripwire’s TV columnist, Hugh David, writes his latest monthly column

While the majority of online writing about the current booming intersection of comics and television centres on TV from the Big Two, with some slight coverage of the indie corners that have been or will be developed (much like coverage of comics itself!), there’s a more interesting, more subtle avenue that rarely seems to get the attention it deserves. The influence of comics in television sometimes runs deeper than just adaptation, but most writing about one or the other draws solely on the knowledge of one area, not both. The perfect example of this writer-producer Neil Cross.

Cross has cited in interviews published online his joy and obsessive fan interest from youth with comics, in particular 2000AD, the works of Alan Moore (he goes into great detail about Captain Britain with Alan Davis, D.R. & Quinch and The Ballad of Halo Jones) there and then in the U.S., Claremont & Byrne’s legendary X-Men run, 70s Spider-man, Nova, and more. His enthusiasm and detailed memory marks him out as one of us, whatever we call ourselves today. Yet no review of his work in television or film notes the possibility of these influencing him in any way, since reviewers tend to only look for such things in the work of the director or DoP. Yet any perusal of his approach to character and plotting in his serialised work – mostly his script editorship of Spooks and original creation Luther, as his U.S. show Crossbones ended up being produced without much of the work he and his writers’ room did for it – suggests that he has absorbed these influences into his own work alongside others. Even his two Doctor Who scripts are redolent of both classic Who and the sense of reworking the retro in modern terms that was the hallmark of Moore’s most enduring work.

This has also led to a particular visual remit with regard to the tales of John Luther, a man who seems beloved by Murder itself. When this writer interviewed director Farren Blackburn two years ago, the only person at that time to have directed Neil Cross scripts in both Who and Luther, he described how Luther was Batman, the Dark Knight looking out over London instead, protecting his patch from the killers and crazies. He described the show as having a “graphic novel sensibility”, which goes a long way towards explaining some of the negative reviews of that six-part first series. The way that series was marketed, potential audiences came expecting something weighty and real in the manner of such landmark British detective shows as Prime Suspect, but were instead thrown by the larger-than-life twists, big emotional beats and characterisations, which might explain some of the negative reviews levelled against it when considering it only in terms of other television or cinema. In particular, you could tell who instinctively “got” what Cross and co. were trying to do with the show if they enjoyed the outlandish relationship that developed between Ruth Wilson’s deliciously dark Alice and Idris Elba’s tortured John Luther.

In the end, providing comic-style renditions of episodes on the official website drove the point home, with moody art by Momoco. But for those who missed them, it’s safe to say that Luther is indeed a graphic novel for television, in both writing and visual execution, and has become more obviously that with each series. In some ways, what Cross has achieved with it is the perfect marriage of the best that comics can be applied to a genre so firmly associated with television, and that is no small feat indeed. We as comic fans should celebrate it more.

Luther – Series 1-3 [DVD] [2010]