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Vice Blog

BREAKING NEWS - THE WIRE SEASON SIX

We can exclusively reveal that The Wire will return for a sixth series in 2010. David Simon and Ed Burns are currently in negotiation with HBO and The BBC with plans to make the next season of the cult show, but this time utilising even more British talent than the previous seasons (for those of you not "in the know," both Stringer Bell and Jimmy McNulty are actual Brits).

Our friend was a junior researcher at the BBC and he found this fax in the waste bin of Alan Yentob after a torrid staff Christmas party last year.

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After he found it our friend had tried to sell it to a disinterested tabloid press for thousands, but because The Wire only just launched on British terrestrial TV this week, the tabloids didn't want to pay him for the story. Now that The Wire has premiered on BBC with HUGE figuresThe Sun and The Mirror must surely be kicking themselves that we've blown open this story.

Our BBC contact was recently laid off because of the economic downturn so he's given it us for FREE. And there's more.

VICE: So is this really true? David Simon has been on record saying "No more The Wire".
BBC INSIDER: It's the biggest open secret in the inner echelons of TV that HBO and BBC are joining forces to make a new season of The Wire, even though both press offices will tell you different.

Wow. Were you privy to any of the discussions?
I was never in any meetings but from what I heard they are planning on using big British names in the next series to make the show cross over more to a mainstream audience. They feel like first five seasons were good but they lacked what it takes to really crack British TV.

So what are they going to do?
Well time's moved on since Season Five and drug dealers no longer use mobile phones to run their empires. I heard they're going to be monitoring character's Twitters, Bebo and Facebook accounts and stuff like that. They also want to make the show more interactive and so there's talk of the public being able to text in plot suggestions and even ideas for music to put on the soundtrack.

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Wow. What else? Who are the British actors' initials on the fax?
Well Gary Oldman's been talked about a lot as a white crack dealer that comes in to destroy Marlo Stanfield. More bizarrely they're talking to Stephen Fry about a story line where he's a British policeman who's come to Baltimore to find his errant lost daughter who's runaway to America and become lost in the Baltimore drugs underworld. And… I know this sounds unbelievable… they've been talking to Peaches Geldof about that part.

Who's RB?
Haha. You won't believe this. They're having Bubbles being dragged back into drugs by the guy who brought Peaches' character over to America, her British junkie boyfriend.

So who's that?
Alan Yentob wants…..Russell Brand.

No shit!
Yeah, but they won't have him unless he cuts all his hair off, so that's one of the main sticking points. Russell won't be without his trademark locks because he feels they enhance his sexual energy. His agent is really playing hardball about it.

WOW!
Yeah I know. It's literally unbelievable right?

You couldn't make it up.
I know!

The Wire Season Six?

ANITA CRAPPER