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Idris Elba has taken on many huge roles in his career to date: Mandela, Luther, Stringer Bell, Shere Khan in the Jungle Book. But this week he took on a completely different role to those that have come before, hosting Pete Tong's Friday night show on Radio 1.

Idris stepped up to the decks and took over for one night only. Listen back here.

Elba's love of music isn't exactly a secret. He's released a handful of albums and has DJed all around the world under various names (Driis, DJ Driis and Big Driis the Londoner - the latter used when he's behind the decks in the US, just in case they needed any reminder as to who he is).

Idris is no stranger to getting behind the decks, but you might not know he has appeared on a Jay-Z album, had a Christmas song with Noel Fielding and DJed at a Royal Wedding. To mark Idris' star role on Radio 1, let's take a look back at some of the standout moments from his musical journey so far.

DJing has long been a love of Elba's. He’s been at it since he was eight years old, when he used to take over the decks at his parents’ parties, and he’s the euphoria he gets from his sets to how acting can make him feel: "I get butterflies when I act but when you've got two turntables and 6,000 people in front of you, standing there going 'come on then', that feeling [is] all instinct".

Idris has come a long way since spinning records for aunties and uncles. about his biggest set, he had to go for Glastonbury. Sure, Elba may have played a festival in Loch Ness earlier this summer, but commandeering the Sonic Stage at Worthy Farm in 2015 saw Idris take things to the next level.

While at first he may have been unsure of what to expect, (most of which were to not forget some bog roll), he ended up having a "wicked time" and even - like a dance music Hulk - tore his shirt off for good measure.

As well as Glastonbury, Idris has played festivals like Ibiza Rocks and opened up for huge names like Deadmau5. But they don't get much bigger than supporting . And in 2015, Elba did just that... twice, warming up the crowd for the Queen of Pop herself before her concerts in Berlin and London.

"I am a DJ for hire, and she wanted a great one," the ever-modest Idris . "I was excited, I had a great time. Madonna is a legend. I got there, I met a beautiful person that has been working for ever and ever, amen, and is still going. She did an incredible show."

For anybody tasked with opening for an artist as massive as Madonna, you’d do well to learn from Idris' own mistake: "I was standing by the curtain before I went on and I made the mistake of peeking to see who was there, thinking maybe they’re not here yet, and then I saw there were actually 17,000 people looking back..."

Ever since Daniel Craig signalled that he may soon hang up his James Bond tux, there's been endless rumours of Idris perhaps becoming the next 007. Although he's since , he teased fans by in August: "My name's Elba, Idris Elba."

A month later though, he continued to troll us all by opening his set at London's Olympic Park by dropping a house remix of the Bond theme.

After DJing at his parents' parties, Idris then graduated to helping his uncle as a wedding DJ. Even back then though, he must never have envisioned the day he'd be playing slow jams for actual royalty.

Elba was on the star-studded guest list for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding in May, which also included everyone from David and Victoria Beckham, James Corden and Tom Hardy to Oprah and James Blunt.

According to , Idris queued up Luther Vandross's Never Too Much, among other . "It remains one of the highlights of my life, for sure," Idris of his royal gig. "It was a beautiful experience."

DJing isn't Idris' only musical talent. He's also a recording artist in his own right.

In 2007, Idris was working on the film American Gangster alongside Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe when he heard that Jay-Z was working on an album inspired by the movie - and he knew he had to be involved.

Idris didn't just cameo on the record, he provided a show stopping spoken-word monologue for its opening track Intro, reciting lines like "Your gangster is not defined by how low your jeans fall by your waist, but more how your genes stand up to their expectations" in his signature gravelly drawl.

Elba likened the chance of working with Jay to getting to play alongside your favourite sport star, : "When you get a moment when someone like LeBron [James] says, 'Come on, son, let’s go play ball', you’re going to go, 'What?!'"

Despite hailing from East London, widely regarded as one of the birthplaces of grime, Idris admitted it took him a while to truly get the homegrown genre. He in 2014: "Grime missed me, man. I was in the States when it kicked off. I heard echoes of it, but I never got into it. Recently though, I feel like it is stepping up and starting to sound more like itself. For the reason that it is totally British, I think it deserves its props."

In fact, it was Skepta that helped change his mind, with Elba saying of Skep's It Ain't Safe: "It's very different... It sounded different... it's so blatantly raw!" And Idris later worked with the grime don, in 2015. Elba's verse saw him rap gems like: "Ain't nobody else Stringer Bell, boy from the East End did well".

Finding out how artists from two entirely different worlds came to meet is always interesting, but the story of how James Blake ended up on Elba's Mi Mandela album is particularly great - and it all comes down to a chance meeting over lunch.

Speaking to , Idris explained how he had been on a break between shoots in Brixton, South London: "I was having lunch at this place, and this kid came up and sat next to me and he goes, 'Idris, I’m James.' And I’m, 'Hello, man. I didn’t recognise you, you’re James Blake.'"

"We know mutual friends. We sat there talking, and I told him what I was doing and he goes, 'Oh man, I’d love to hear it.' So I sent him a couple of jams when I was mixing songs. He came down to studio to mess around with one of these tracks and the one he ended up on he came into the studio and plugged in the Rhodes [electric piano] and started playing. He didn’t want to sing, he just wanted to get on it."

When Idris gets into character, he doesn’t just play the role, sometimes he even records music in character. "I've got this daydream that I'm going to have this boxed set of albums which are all of my favourite characters," Idris has , saying that it would be "a life achievement for me".

So far, Elba has released albums inspired by his portrayal of Nelson Mandela (2014's Mi Mandela) and John Luther (2015's Murdah Loves John). He also wants to release a record under the guise of his Wire character Stringer Bell. And who knows, one day maybe we'll even get a Bond theme recorded by Bond himself?

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Idris has appeared in a fair few music videos over the years: he was an aspiring rapper in the clip for Fat Joe's All I Need in 2002, a postman in Angie Stone's I Wanna Thank You in 2004, and a driver in Giggs' 2010 video for Hustle On. He even showed off his moves in Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ Dance Off in 2016.

In 2012 though, Idris took a bit more of the spotlight; co-directing and playing the lead role in Mumford & Sons' video for Lover of the Light.

Marcus Mumford said Idris was "one of our favourite actors" and that they knew he was the one to approach to about making a video together: “We met him in a pub in London, and we had a chat, and talked about doing something that was, as a music video, very different from anything we've done before”.

The video in question follows Elba as a blind man who follows his senses on a whirlwind of a journey, ending up at the edge of a cliff. Asked about the meaning behind the clip, Marcus said: "I think we understand it, I think we do."

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Idris has proved that he's far from a scrooge. In fact, last year saw both himself and Stormzy dress up as Father Christmas to deliver presents to children at a hospital in London.

He's shared many other festive gifts over the years too: in 2010 releasing a and in 2015 for a Christmas-themed track.

Working with the Loose Tapestries, Noel and Serge's comedy side-project, Elba delivered a rap about boxer shorts and socks on , the closing track from the band's second album. Fielding, meanwhile, was responsible for typically wacky lines like "My wife is a walnut, she’s a Christmas walnut", while Pizzorno sang: "Thank you for the joystick, thank you for the socks, thank you for the Rolex, thank you for the yacht".

Who knows, perhaps we'll get another musical present from Idris this Christmas...?

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