Who's Who In The Wire?

Over the years, you might have heard someone you know talking about The Wire. Or seen it name-checked in a newspaper, magazine or online, usually festooned with a 'best thing ever' label.

Well, tucked away on BBC2 (just after Newsnight, when many will be thinking of heading to bed) is where you'll find one of the greatest shows in the history of television. I know it attracts a reverence from critics and fans that is off-putting. And I know there must be some valid reason for the fact that, until now, it only aired in the UK on digital channel FX (the language, probably). But I'd recommend to anybody who's never seen it, who cares about television and likes to get sucked into programmes to the extent that they spend their whole day at work waiting for the evening so they can get back home and watch the next episode, to give it a try.

On a superficial level, it's a drama set in Baltimore about the parallel worlds of police officers and drug dealers. But it's way more than that. It's terrifying and moving and dazzling and foul-mouthed and funny and astonishingly imaginative and desperately sad. And it treats you, the viewer, with such immense respect and dignity, you kind of feel humbled spending time in its presence. Don't worry if you can't get into it straightaway; the first episode is a struggle, and, to be honest, a bit of a mess. You need to see the second hot on its heels, or else you'll lose interest. There's a precise moment in the second episode, involving television sets raining from tower block windows, where everything suddenly clicks. And if not then, a conversation about the game of chess in the third episode.

And if you're still not hooked, a scene in the fourth that lasts three and a half minutes and consists wholly of the same word being repeated over and over is the clincher. I would say it's the best American television series ever, were it not for HBO stablemates The Sopranos, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Band Of Brothers. And most probably some other HBO effort I've never seen or which has yet to be dreamed up. Oh, and let's not forget The West Wing - which isn't HBO but is superlative telly. Starting Monday March 30 on BBC2, The Wire is on every night for the next 12 weeks; definitely the best news so far this year. In our gallery below, get a flavour of some of the key players.

The Wire, daily, BBC2 - check listings for transmission times