Wire Star West Critical Of British Television Drama

The British star of acclaimed US television series The Wire says TV in the UK "lacks the high end of drama".

Dominic West, who plays police officer Jimmy McNulty in the Baltimore-set show, told the Today programme he found himself disappointed at the lack of quality modern drama on British TV.

"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," he said.

The Wire is to receive its UK terrestrial debut on BBC2 on Monday March 30th, will all 60 episodes of the programme set to be screened.

Millions of viewers will now be able to immerse themselves in the exploits of Officer McNulty (West) and other citizens of the Maryland city, including police, drug dealers, politicians and journalists.

Speaking ahead of the acclaimed drama's BBC run, West, 39, said: "I love costume drama, no-one does it like the BBC - no-one has the money to do it, first of all and, secondly, Americans don't have the history do it.

"So we do it brilliantly but if you talk to any BBC producers, they abhor the fact... they're dying to do The Wire and hate doing Cranford."

He added: "I thought Cranford was incredible but we don't seem to be able to do contemporary stuff."

Created by David Simon, The Wire is one of the most praised dramas in television history but has never been aired on terrestrial television.

"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," said Sue Deeks, BBC Television's head of series and programme acquisitions earlier this month.