Idris Elba Fight School: who is the actor, does he have a boxing club, and when is BBC programme on TV?

Hollywood star Idris Elba is set to explore how the power of boxing can turn around the lives of eight young adults in a new mini series for the BBC, called Idris Elba’s Fight School.

The first episode of the show will air tonight, on Sunday 17 April, at 9pm on BBC Two.

This is everything you need to know about the programme.

Who is Idris Elba?

Elba is an English actor, producer and musician who is best known for his roles as Stringer Bell in the series The Wire as as DCI John Luther in BBC One series Luther.

He was born Idrissa Akuna “Idris” Elba on 6 September 1972 in London, to parents Winston and Eve.

Elba was raised in Hackney and East Ham and, prior to pursuing a career in acting, briefly attended Barking and Dagenham College. He left the college in 1988 and won a spot in the National Youth Music Theatre.

His other projects that you may recognise him from include 28 Weeks Later, RocknRolla, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, American Gangster, Prometheus, Pacific Rim, Beasts of No Nation, The Suicide Squad, Molly’s Game and Cats.

Across his career, Elba has won a number of awards, including the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film, for Luther, and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role, for Beasts of No Nation.

Elba has also cropped up in a handful of music videos as well, including Stormzy’s Vossi Bop, Humford and Sons’ Lover of the Light and Macklemore’s Dance Off.

Outside of acting, Elba also performs as a DJ and musician, under the name DJ Big Driis, or sometimes just Idris. He also has his own record label, called 7Wallace Music, which was launched in 2018.

What is Idris Elba’s Fight School - does he own a boxing club?

For Idris Elba’s Fight School, Elba has teamed up with Camden Boxing Club to see if the art of boxing can turn around the lives of a group of eight young adults.

Elba was inspired after he saw first hand how a community of young people in South Africa were transformed by the introduction of a local boxing club. He was in South Africa whilst filming the 2013 Nelson Mandela biopic Long Walk to Freedom.

Recalling how filming in South Africa a decade ago prompted the project, Elba told the PA news agency: “I was making a film. I was making Mandela and during that time Mandela obviously used boxing as a way to focus his mind when he was in prison.

“He used to train before and then when he got to prison he kept his training up.

“It focused his mind and also when I was playing my character I went to gyms where they helped young kids get out of trouble and stay out of bad situations by making these really tiny makeshift gyms… and they were inspiring to me.”

Elba said that while the young people had “not very much in way of support”, the gym was like a “nervous system” for them.

He added: “It became a place where they [went] from young boys to young men.

“They were very talented and you could see that in the way that they would talk to you, in the way that they respected authority, they respected instruction.

“I could see that was a big, big component in their lives. And I was just like, wow, I would love to experiment [with] that discipline that these kids are going through.”

Talking to the BBC, Elba said that he wanted to make the series because, as a youngster, he joined a boxing club, which was “a real turning point in my life, teaching me discipline and control moving forward”.

He said: “During my own experience of fighting there was a level of peace I was able to achieve. Boxing requires you to switch off all the noise and focus on the moment, a skill that I believe all people need, especially younger people who need direction.

“Looking back at my own experiences, I’m reminded of how powerful boxing can be on disadvantaged young people, giving them a sense of purpose.

“This was the inspiration behind Fight School.”

Working with leading coaches, the participants in Idris Elba’s Fight School will train twice a day, six days a week, and will have access to a life coach and inspirational mentors.

The ultimate goal of the series is to see each member of the group compete in an official amateur fight at one of the world’s most iconic boxing venues, after just five months of training.

Who are the mentors and contestants?

The two mentors on Idris Elba’s Fight School are Greg White, 35, Head Coach at Rathbone and Camden Boxing Club, and Rachel Bower, 39, Head of Amateur Boxing at Rathbone and Hawley ABC.

The contestants are:

• Chanika, 29, East London
• Finlay, 19, Hamilton, Scotland
• Jess, 25, Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales
• Ash, 28, The Wirral
• Kerryn, 25, West London
• Naeem, 18, Oldham
• Sophie, 29, Solihull
• Zeb, 24, North West London
• Katie, 23, Newcastle, Northern Ireland

When is it on TV?

Idris Elba’s Fight School is a five part series, with the first episode airing tonight, on Sunday 17 April, on BBC Two at 9pm.

Following episodes will then air on the subsequent Sunday evenings on the same channel and at the same time.

Shortly after broadcast, each episode will be available to watch on the BBC iPlayer.