James Gandolfini - The next Sopranos?

The premature death yesterday, at 51, of James Gandolfini, the actor whose Emmy-winning portrayal of a Mafia boss in The Sopranos was a reminder of how magnificent, how very well written that series was.

The Sopranos ended its six-season run just six years ago but the passage of time has served to underline the quality of the writing, acting and production involved.

The series, though not the first to do so, finally confirmed a major shift in the art and business of television and film making. It confirmed that the very best writing, once almost automatically destined for cinema studios and screens, had migrated to television. This change may have been facilitated by the ever-more vapid, predominantly youth orientated cinema output.