MEMBERS of the cult of The Wire will probably be miffed that the object of their obsession is about to go mainstream. Soon everyone will be talking about it – and they'll have to find a new club to join.
Those smug few in designer specs and slightly edgy haircuts, who used to congregate in small numbers to discuss the latest twist in the life of Detective Jimmy McNulty and the drug-swamped projects of Baltimore's west side, must move along and listen
for the rumble of the Next Big Thing to come from HBO, the American premium subscription channel that spawned not only The Wire but also Six Feet Under, The Sopranos and John Adams.
The cognoscenti either watched all five series of The Wire on minority satellite channel FX or, having paid attention to hearsay about the series ("Even better than The West Wing"), bought a whole series on DVD. It was as good as the hype had told them, and they watched the dark drama compulsively for a few days, before going out and evangelising.
The Wire is the brainchild of former Baltimore Sun crime writer David Simon and former policeman Ed Burns. The 60 episodes will run each week night on BBC2, and they are as far from a typical British police series as it's possible go.
If you like your cop shows to tie up loose ends neatly or enjoy crime "lite" set in historic English towns then this isn't for you. The first series follows the unfolding of one investigation into a string of murders tied to drug gangs in the rundown public housing projects of West Baltimore, Maryland.
As much time is spent following the lives of dealers, cornerboys and addicts as is spent on the character of Jimmy McNulty and his colleagues in Baltimore Police Department. More than anything it is a picture of a lost society and the inability of institutions to deal with decay.
The writing team includes several accomplished novelists, and the vision and ambition of the show is breathtaking, its scope as intricate and dense as a fine doorstop of a Victorian novel. At the outset, David Simon said he wanted to do for Baltimore what Balzac did for Paris and Dickens did for London, showing the scary shadows of the underbelly, with intense realism and unsparing attention to detail.
The Wire is probably as naturalistic and unvarnished as fiction can be. The complex plotting, brilliant characterisations and a very real sense of discomfort bound up in seeking any kind of truth in this environment, all mark it out from anything else in TV drama. McNulty is played by 39-year-old Dominic West, born and brought up in Hope Valley, near Sheffield. Eton educated, West had a serious theatrical career (National Theatre, The Old Vic) before travelling to Hollywood.
Publicising the launch on BBC2, West took the opportunity to have a swipe at UK television, saying it lacked "high-end" contemporary drama like The Wire, which could only have been made by a company like HBO.
He went on: "If you turn on American TV, there's a huge choice of nothing you want to see and, unfortunately, I think that's the case here now as well. I love costume drama, no-one does it like the BBC... but if you talk to any BBC producers they abhor the fact... they're dying to do The Wire and hate doing Cranford."
The BBC replied: "Contrary to some perceptions, period drama made up less than a third of all new drama on the BBC last year. Instead, powerful contemporary drama such as Criminal Justice and the forthcoming Occupation was by far the most prevalent style of drama on the BBC.
The spokesman added: "HBO is a subscription channel and therefore does not have the same commercial pressures to make a drama of mass appeal. The cost per episode is also much higher than the average here in the UK, meaning it would be difficult from a financial point of view to replicate the drama elsewhere in the US or UK."
West has a point, though, and even though the BBC is making modern drama series, many are unmemorable.
"It is two-way traffic," says Brent MacGregor, vice-principal of Edinburgh College of Art and director of its Screen and Media Academy, run jointly with Napier University. "While we're enjoying The Wire, HBO subscribers are currently watching The Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency and Shameless.
"It's true, though, that for a long time the US did sitcoms better than British TV, and in recent years series like NYPD Blue, Heroes and The Wire have taken drama to a new, higher level, eclipsing us in edginess and production values. There seems to be no limit to their ambitions for their shows, and very often they succeed."
"In the BBC, there's a kind of institutionalised caution. You used to be able to get a programme made after a short and relatively simply process of a few pages of script and ideas, then a chat with one or two people. Now there are lengthy procedures, many changes, and lots of people involved. It doesn't make for adventurous TV."
The Wire continues on BBC2 at 11.20pm tonight.
