Preview: The Wire (Season 5/Episode 1) + David Simon in Conversation

We preview the first episode of the The Wire season five, without doubt one of the finest programmes in TV history, and welcome its creator David Simon to discuss the series’ genesis and development.

The Wire (Season5/Episode 1)

The Wire is, as anyone who has experienced it will eagerly tell you, absolutely extraordinary television; ambitious, intelligent and utterly mesmerising. So it's no surprise that since The Wire was first broadcast in 2002 TV critics have struggled for superlatives. But despite the rave reviews, it has never found an audience on the scale of, say, its HBO stable-mate The Sopranos. Yet what it has found is a passionate, appreciative, extraordinarily loyal fanbase and that will do for now, because, as Variety states, 'When television history is written, little else will rival The Wire'. We are thrilled to preview the first episode of the fifth season, ahead of its broadcast on FX in July, and to be able to welcome the writer and creator of The Wire, David Simon, to BFI Southbank to discuss the series' genesis and development.

The Wire (Season5/Episode 1)

Directed by:

Joe Chappelle

Year:

2008

Running time:

c50min