Is this the best TV series ever made?

It started as a cop show about drug gangs in Baltimore, and grew into an epic, shifting portrait of a city in the grip of poverty and crisis. But The Wire - now in its final season and acclaimed as the most accomplished TV series ever - is not the work of regular screen writers but an ex-journalist, an ex-detective and an elite team of novelists. We asked our own panel of crime writers to explain its appeal Irvine Welsh Irvine Welsh is a novelist, playwright and screenwriter acclaimed for his gritty depictions of Scottish working-class life. His novels include Trainspotting, Filth and Porno. His latest, Crime, is out now. My pal and screenwriting partner Dean Cavanagh is the master of the download and he seems to get everything before everyone else. He was going on about The Wire a few years back. Now I think it's the best... [read full story]