THE WIRE - SEASON 5

So 'The Wire' - aka the best thing that's ever been on a television - returns to UK screens for the fifth and final series in July. Having addressed the failing schools system and the impotence of local government in earlier episodes, series five turns to the media and its priorities and power in the war on crime. Womanising drunk McNulty is centre stage once again, as is the tragic Bubbles. The story also closely follows the fate of Dukie and Michael, now they've left school. The first episode was shown at London's BFI to a horde of superfans, on Wednesday, followed by a Q&A with creator and writer David Simon, hosted by The Wire's #1 evangelist, Charlie Brooker. Being as careful as possible to avoid spoilers, former journalist Simon admitted his career in telly was "a really ridiculous accident" and, not disguising his contempt for other shows, replied to Brooker's suggestion that 'The Wire' makes everything else on TV seem rubbish, by declaring: "That's damning it with faint praise!" Big laughs came with the revelation that not only is 'The Wire' Barack Obama's favourite TV show but that his favourite character is gay stickup crook Omar! For anyone about to discover this extraordinary and uncompromising work for the first time, we utterly envy you since the rest of us have just one last ride around the mean streets of Baltimore to look forward to. After that, there's nothing (that is, until David Simon's forthcoming mini-drama about the Iraq war).

< Prev		Next >