Wire star angers BBC
THE BRITISH star of the hit US cop show The Wire has criticised the BBC for screening too many costume dramas.
Actor Dominic West claimed schedules were overly reliant on costume drama and claimed that BBC producers secretly "hate" working on the likes of Cranford, the award-winning period adaptation starring Dame Judi Dench.
His comments are a major embarrassment for the BBC who last night screened the hit US show for the first time on terrestrial TV in the UK.
The actor, 39, who became a major industry player in the States after playing Baltimore police detective Jimmy McNulty, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that there is a lack of “high end contemporary drama”.
He said: "If you turn on American TV, there's a huge choice of nothing you want to see and, unfortunately, I think that's the case here now as well.
"We seem to lack the high end of drama. We do costume drama brilliantly, and I love costume drama.
“No-one does it like the BBC – no-one has the money to do it, first of all, and, secondly, Americans don't have the history to do it.”
He added: “But if you talk to any BBC producers, they abhor the fact... they are dying to do The Wire and hate doing Cranford.I thought Cranford was incredible but we don't seem to be able to do contemporary stuff."
