15 Greatest HBO Characters Of All Time

David Milch's profane and poetic gold rush epic Deadwood is the story of a civilisation emerging from chaos. And while its sprawling cast has few if any weak links, the dominant force at its very core is Ian McShane's Al Swearengen, in arguably TV's greatest ever performance.

Vicious pimp, murderer, amoral saloon owner; Al Swearengen starts the show as a moustache twirling villain, more than happy to have a child killed to cover the tracks of his other nefarious crimes. Admittedly, the character never really softens, but McShane manages to earn an enormous amount of sympathy; as Swearengen lets us behind the curtain, we grow to understand him – we see that everything he does is for the camp, for the people he cares about. Odds are you still wouldn't want to meet the man – but you can see where he's coming from.

The show's sudden cancellation means that much of Swearengen's story will go untold, but in a way that makes sense. Al Swearengen is never going to change, is never going to become a good man. But once you know what makes him tick, you can at least empathise with him.