Elba calls for diversity on British TV

Movie star Idris Elba urged Britain’s television industry to become more diverse, in a speech at the Houses of Parliament on Monday, saying he had to move to the US to make it big.

London-born Elba, who is best known for his starring role in US series The Wire, spoke about how he worked as a tyre fitter and at a Ford motor plant before forging a career for himself as an actor in Britain.

But, he said, he was forced to move to the US to take the next step in his career because of a lack of major roles for black actors in British television.

“I got to a certain point in my career where I saw the glass ceiling,” he said to a packed committee room.

“I got so close I nearly banged my forehead. I was busy, I had lots of work, but I realised I could only play so many best friends or gang leaders.”

He added: “I didn’t go to America because I couldn’t get parts, I went to America because I was running out of parts.”

Elba’s breakthrough role in the US came in Baltimore crime series The Wire, which ran from 2002-2008.

The star, whose father came from Sierra Leone and mother from Ghana, is now touted as the possible first black James Bond and plays the lead in crime drama Luther, one of the BBC’s most successful shows. “I used to fit tyres in Forest Gate and now I make movies in Hollywood — the difference between the two is opportunity,” Elba said.