THE BBC'S Diversity Chief has claimed Idris Elba's Luther 'isn't black enough to be real because he doesn't eat Caribbean food'.
Idris, 48, has played the titular detective since 2010, however Miranda Wayland has now said the series is only superficially diverse.
She added that the Corporation is now working to portray minority groups in a more rounded and convincing way.
Speaking at the MIPTV conference this week, Miranda said: "When [Luther] first came out everybody loved the fact that Idris Elba was in there — a really strong, black character lead.
"We all fell in love with him. Who didn't, right? But after you got into about the second series you got kind of like, OK, he doesn't have any black friends, he doesn't eat any Caribbean food, this doesn't feel authentic."
She added the solution wasn't as simple as just hiring more black directors.
However, Luther creator Neil Cross shared his surprised at the comments, and revealed Idris only agreed to the role because race was not considered important to the character.
He said: "I have no knowledge or expertise or right to try to tackle in some way the experience of being a black man in modern Britain.
"It would have been an act of tremendous arrogance for me to try to write a black character.
"We would have ended up with a slightly embarrassed, ignorant, middle-class, white writer's idea of a black character."
The BBC also defended the character and said it was "tremendously proud" of the fact it had attracted an audience of 10 million as well as being sold to over 200 territories around the world.
The Corporation has said it will spend £100 million of its content budget on diverse programming over three years.
Meanwhile, a Luther film is in the works, with Idris confirming the news in August last year by teasing: "The sky is the limit".
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