Idris Elba may not be the next James Bond, but on his new Netflix show he’s the next best thing—a DJ turned nanny. On Thursday, the streaming service released the trailer for Turn Up Charlie, a new comedy series in which Elba plays a musician who, after falling upon hard times, becomes his more successful friend’s "manny." While the concept seems a bit tired—a MAN?! Caring for a precocious CHILD?!—it’s Idris Elba we’re talking about here, and the promo promises plenty of his signature Sexiest Man Alive charm.
Elba told Esquire that Turn Up Charlie centres around a middle-aged DJ "dealing with ambition management." It’s a role he’s well-qualified to play, as Elba’s also a DJ in real life. He’ll be playing at Coachella this spring, much to the internet’s surprise, and it won’t be his first major booking. Elba performed at Glastonbury Festival in 2015, and landed the best DJ gig of all time when he scored a set at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding reception.
If you’re understandably skeptical of celebrity DJs, perhaps scarred by memories Paris Hilton earning up to $1 million per set, Elba insists he’s got cred. As a child Elba worked gigs with an uncle who was a professional DJ, and he began performing on his own while still a teenager, working under the names DJ Big Driis and Big Driis the Londoner.
The Turn Up Charlie trailer also suggests that the show, which Elba co-created, will include nods to his African-British heritage. He often takes inspiration from his roots when developing his own projects. Last year, Elba created and starred in the semi-autobiographical sitcom In the Long Run, which followed a Sierra Leonean family in London during the 1980s, and also directed the crime film Yardie about that city's Jamaican mafia. Both took place in Hackney, London where Elba grew up.
The first season of Turn Up Charlie drops on Netflix on 15 March, and costars Piper Perabo and Captain America’s JJ Feild.
