I am resisting my overwhelming compulsion to discuss the Wire until my hands seize up from RSI.

However, I have recently resurfaced from complete immersion in a few episodes at once and can’t put a stopper on this altogether. The last time that I was swept up into a world populated by so many diverse characters, who are true-to-life and extravagantly over-the-top at the same time, was when I read Charles Dickens as a child.

Especially in Series 4, the Wire’s world of hypocrites, self-serving officials, cheats, villains, child criminals, abandoned urchins and flawed heroes is a modern mirror for Dickens’ depiction of the world of the Victorian underclass.