Adolescence writer Jack Thorne has named the much-loved TV show that he considers to be “the finest piece of literature of the past 30 years”.
Speaking to The Times, Thorne said that Alan Bleasdale’s 1982 series Boys from the Blackstuff “cuts like a knife” and the US medical drama ER “touched greatness more regularly than any other show in network TV history”.
Yet it was David Simon’s The Wire, often cited as the greatest TV show of all time, that Thorne heralded as the “finest piece of literature” of the past three decades.
Across 60 episodes and five seasons that aired from 2002 to 2008, The Wire portrayed the crime scene in Baltimore, Maryland through the eyes of police officers, drug dealers and users.
The programme, starring Dominic West as egotistical police detective Jimmy McNulty and Idris Elba as drug lord Stringer Bell, received modest audience ratings during its initial run but garnered a cult following in the years following its release.
Elba admitted this month he couldn’t agree or disagree with claims the show was the “greatest of all time” because he’s never actually sat down and watched it.
“It’s not that I’m not a fan of it – I was there,” he said. “I made a show that was, you know, so intense and so real, so important, even though we didn’t realise it.
“I didn’t realise the importance of the show while making it.”
Despite its critical acclaim, The Wire never won a Primetime Emmy Award, receiving only two nominations – for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series in 2005 and 2008.
Thorne’s remarks about the show come after Adolescence received 13 Emmy nominations this week. The categories included Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, as well as performance nods for Stephen Graham, Ashley Walters, Erin Doherty, Christine Tremarco and Owen Cooper.
The show’s director Phillip Bartini also received an Outstanding Directing nomination, with Graham and Thorne’s powerful script recognised with an Outstanding Writing nod.
Released in March, Adolescence triggered a national conversation around incel culture, misogyny, and the online “manosphere”.
Thorne is also behind the acclaimed mini-series Toxic Town, This Is England ‘86, This Is England ‘88, and This Is England ‘90, in which Graham starred.
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