The Wire to be Shown in Full on BBC Two

Barack Obama’s Favourite TV Show gets its First Terrestrial Viewing

Mar 12, 2009

The full five season run of television's greatest ever show is to be broadcast for the first time on a British terrestrial channel later this year.

For a long time on British TV this critically acclaimed and award winning series has been hidden away on FX, which is only available to viewers who have Sky or cable, or to those who have bought the DVD box sets. Now the BBC has announced that every episode of this ground-breaking series is to be broadcast on BBC Two from this year.

To put it simply The Wire is about the people who are caught up in the drug trade in Baltimore – a largely African American populated city with one of the highest homicide rates in the US. This includes the police, the drug gangs, street dealers, the addicts, the workers at the port where the drugs are shipped through, the school children forced to sell drugs to earn a living, politicians wanting to improve stats and the media that writes about or very often ignores the trade.

Each season follows a different arc and focuses on social themes – Season 2 for example shows the fall of the unions and the hardships of the white working class. There’s barely any end of episode cliff hangers or soap style twists which reveal that everyone is related to one another in order to lure viewers in, it’s just a deep and well constructed narrative told from all sides. Although each season does build up to an explosive finale, it’s all one piece of an epic five year story.

Populated by People like stick-up Man Omar Little and Cop Lester Freamon

The Wire is also populated by some fantastic people such as stick-up man Omar Little (Michael K. Williams) – whose code is to steal from drug dealers and not get the ordinary tax payer involved – deadpan kingpin Proposition Joe (Robert F. Chew), likeable drug addict Bubbles (Andre Royo) and methodical cop Lester Freamon (Clarke Peters).

But it is also a programme that demands attention as casual viewers will lose track of ever changing events, the characters that make fleeting appearances and the off-screen developments. The Wire carries an air of authenticity lost in most shows. It’s no surprising as the head writers and co-creators David Simon and Ed Burns know a lot about this world as they were a crime reporter and detective respectively.

As many of the drug dealers – some played by real life former criminals – use slang words lifted straight from the streets it’s sometimes hard to know exactly what they mean but through the context of the language you have a basic understanding of what's going on.

The Wire also doesn’t discriminate its characters as some scenes illustrate that sometimes the police are no better than the criminals they are trying to catch and that each world has its own internal power system. This is seen mainly in Season 3 where the councilmen at city hall are grilling senior policemen in public meetings about crime levels whilst the Barksdale drug gang hold a similar gathering with their own chairman and formal address.

The show has an ensemble cast of largely unknown character actors form both sides of the Atlantic, most of whom have gone on to have success in film and TV. The closest thing The Wire has to a lead star is Sheffield’s own Dominic West as the often drunk but brilliant detective Jimmy McNulty. West has gone on to have major roles in Zack Snyder’s 300 and in Punisher: War Zone.

Some of the other notable actors include Lance Reddick (Matthew Abaddon in Lost), Idris Elba (who starred in Guy Ritchie’s RocknRolla), Aiden Gillen (Stuart in Queer as Folk) and Amy Jones (who played the wrongfully imprisoned Carol Dexter in Changeling).

In its original run The Wire in both States and the UK had low ratings figures but through word of mouth has risen to an almost revered status. Those who want to see it again now have an opportunity and for anyone who hasn’t but owns a TV you have no excuse not to watch it.

Sue Deeks, BBC Television's Head of Series, Programme Acquisition, says: "We are delighted to offer terrestrial viewers the opportunity to watch this ground-breaking series; it's a wonderful chance for everyone to see what the critics have been raving about for so long."

The Wire starts on BBC Two on Monday, March 30 at the ridiculously late time of 11.20pm.

The copyright of the article The Wire to be Shown in Full on BBC Two in British TV is owned by Steven Cookson. Permission to republish The Wire to be Shown in Full on BBC Two in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.