15 Greatest HBO Characters Of All Time

Before The Sopranos, before TV got so darn serious, there was Oz. Set in an experimental prison, it is very much the precursor to HBO's golden years, a searing, dark, ever so violent drama. It's also utterly, utterly ridiculous.

One of its silliest characters is also its finest. Simon Adebisi, a towering African murderer with a very small hat, controls the Emerald City cell block through brute force and intimidation, mainly of the sexual variety. Among the very finest unpredictable lunatic characters, actor Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje is one of the few performers who seems to recognise how silly the source material is, and he throws himself into it.

It's a testament to the quality he brings that the show goes so sharply downhill following his demise. No other character managed to be so compellingly fun while also being entirely ludicrous, and Oz's swift descent begins the moment Adebisi suffers a fittingly barmy death, staggering out of his cell and glaring before spitting a plume of blood into the sky. He will be missed.