The Wire and Luther star Idris Elba leaves cops and robbers for a DJ date at Creamfields

TO millions of box set addicted fans on both sides of the Atlantic, he’s Stringer Bell, the Baltimore drug lord in HBO’s The Wire.

Or maybe he’s DCI John Luther in the BBC’s award-winner Luther?

Either way, Idris Elba, pictured, is a very cool guy, and there’s another lesser-known talent to the actor which he’s about to share ... as part of this year’s stellar Creamfields line-up.

Because, for those unfamiliar with his alter ego, the 40-year-old also happens to be DJ Driis.

In fact, although those only familiar with his Golden Globe winning screen roles might not know it, his music credentials stretch back further than his acting ones.

Having first started when he was just 14, Idris was actually a DJ from Hackney struggling to find acting work when he landed the role of Stringer and sent his CV through the roof.

And this year – despite having three major films due out – he’s declared he’s going to be taking more time off from in front of the camera to get behind the decks.

Next month he’ll be joining Fatboy Slim, Pete Tong, Sven Vath and Maya Jane Coles at the International Music Summit (IMS) dance music conference in Ibiza, and Insider hears he’s been offered a summer residency at Ibiza Rocks alongside Zane Lowe, Mark Ronson and Example.

In the middle of that crammed schedule, though, Idris will be flying in from the White Isle to Daresbury on Saturday August 24.

He’ll be in the Toolroom Records Arena where no doubt Wire devotees will be camped out to catch a glimpse of their (anti) hero.

Idris takes his music seriously and he couldn’t be happier to get the chance finally to run both careers side by side.

“I’m having fun. I know my crowd, I think I know what people want to hear and I’m trying to establish the idea that you don’t have to be one person,” he says. “If you have other talents you should explore them.”

See him soon, because you never know – despite his own protestations that it’s just “a massive rumour”–- he might be about to be the next 007 when Daniel Craig hangs up his P99 pistol. And it’s not like we have one of those around these parts every day ...