My Top 5 TV Characters

This is, of course, an entirely subjective list. It would have been very easy to chuck half the cast of The Wire into it, but I’ve decided to limit myself to one character per show. Sadly that means that Bubbles, Bunk and Bell miss the cut. Others who missed the grade by a whisker include 24’s Jack Bauer, Blackadder, Raphael from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Jay from the Inbetweeners and Peep Show’s Superhans. Those that are included on the list are presented in no particular order. Despite that, Omar Little is my undisputed number one.

Omar Little, The Wire
In an ensemble cast of convincingly created characters, it was always Omar who stood out. Announcing his presence with his menacing whistle, toting his shotgun and ripping off dealers, he was – surprisingly – one of the moral centres of the series. Complex but never contradictory, Omar’s insistence on playing ‘the game’ according to his strict ethical code made him one of the show’s good guys and he stole every single scene he appeared in. And he was overtly gay. And has a cool scar.



Gareth Keenan, The Office
The Office reinvigorated British sitcoms and launched Ricky Gervais into global stardom. But David Brent was never the star of the show. Instead that honour fell to Gareth Keenan. A pedantic little jobsworth with his nose wedged deeply into Brent’s bottom, he was irritating and sanctimonious but also strangely vulnerable. Watching Gareth react to the series of pranks played on him by co-worker Tim (encasing his stapler in jelly being a particular highlight) was one of the greatest joys of a truly great series.



Papa Lazarou, The League of Gentlemen
Of all the grotesque creations featured in The League of Gentlemen, Lazarou is the one who sticks most in the mind. He featured in only a few episodes but made in impact far out of proportion with his screen time. A hideous hybrid of ringmaster and black-and-white minstrel, he stalked around Royston Vasey stealing wives and talking ‘gippog’. And he gave the world his amazing catchphrase: “Hello, Dave!!”



Al Swearengen, Deadwood
Swearengen by name, Swearengen by nature. Rarely has a TV character used profanity as efficiently and prolifically as Ian McShane’s memorable saloon owner. He’s a murdering pimp who is at the heart of all that is corrupt in Deadwood, keeps a severed head in a box and regularly has corpses fed to pigs. But he’s a lovably irascible old bastard and that’s testament to McShane’s masterly performance.




Egg, This Life
Egg was/is me. A fanatical Manchester United supporter (with framed Steve Bruce shirt on his wall), a failure in his preferred profession, an aspiring writer and a bit of a shambles. I couldn’t say I modelled my life on Andrew Lincoln’s character, but it’s alarming how similarly our lives turned out given the passage of time.