Wire star accepts honorary degree in Sheffield

Sheffield-born Dominic West played detective Jimmy McNulty in the hit US TV series The Wire

Dominic West, who played detective Jimmy McNulty in the TV series The Wire, has received an honorary degree from Sheffield Hallam University.

The Sheffield-born actor, who also played Oliver Cromwell, was honoured for services to the arts.

And he joked about the "mean streets" of Baltimore, where the cop show was set, saying he thought it was little different from Sheffield.

"It means a lot that Sheffield remembers that I'm from here," he said

He told the audience of students and their families The Wire writer David Simon took him around the desolate housing projects of Baltimore and showed him the failing football team and derelict steelworks.

"David turned to me and said 'It's depressing, isn't it?'," he told Sheffield City Hall.

"I thought, 'not at all... it's just like home'."

West said his grandfather and great-uncle were doctors in Sheffield, as his sister now is.

"It is with great pride and a certain feeling of being an impostor that I thank this wonderful university for this great honour of making me also a Sheffield doctor," West said.

Speaking outside the ceremony, the actor said he is still able to walk the streets of Sheffield relatively unnoticed.

"Unfortunately, that's the case all over the world," he said.

But the Old Etonian said: "I always miss out on the TV shows and films that are set in Sheffield.

"They never cast me in them because they think I'm posh or that I don't know anything about Sheffield.

"So it means a lot that Sheffield remembers that I'm from here."

He accepted an honorary degree from the university today alongside the folk singer Kate Rusby.