The Wire has been named the greatest TV series of the 21st century in a new poll.
The critically acclaimed drama ranked first in a new BBC list ranking the best shows of the last 21 years, based on an aggregate poll of TV critics.
“We hope you are as inspired and exhilarated by reading the results as we are – as collectively, they not only offer a celebration of TV itself, but a view of the modern era like few others,” the BBC wrote.
Reacting to the win, The Wire creator David Simon said: “I’m glad the show has a shelf life. We weren’t interested in whether characters were good or bad. The writers had in their heads the idea, ‘If a society is going to have a law enforcement arm, what’s the job of that institution? What are the police doing?’
“If you write a show like that, it will have a shelf life for as long as those systems are in play.”
Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Fleabag, and Game Of Thrones made up the remainder of the top five. Read the full BBC list here.
Last month (September 13) Simon penned a tribute in an open essay to the show’s late actor Michael K Williams.
The Wire‘s creator took to Twitter to post a tribute in the New York Times after the 54-year-old actor was found dead in his home in Brooklyn on September 6.
“A short remembrance for a talent, a genuine collaborator and a true friend. What I hope never gets lost is the awareness that Mike genuinely wanted his work to matter; not for fame or reward, but for leaving us all better humans in its wake,” Simon wrote in the post.
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