The 15 Best British Crime Drama Series Of All Time

There's just something about the way British shows depict their hard-nosed police officers, their small, clever private investigators, and all the baggage that comes with them. Make no mistake, though — there's no single recipe for British crime drama. The country has successfully dabbled in just about every sub-genre under the sun, from cozy, character-driven "case of the week" fare to anxious nail-biter shows that wheel out one high-stakes situation after another. This means that compressing the whole, decades-long history of excellent British crime shows into a single ranking can be tricky.

For the purposes of this list, we'll lean slightly puritan and choose only shows that feature police officers, private detectives, and comparable crime-solvers solving crimes. That means no fantasy elements to interfere with the crime drama (sorry, "Life on Mars") and no overwhelming focus on espionage antics (ditto, "Slow Horses"). Likewise, many extremely entertaining shows like Robert Carlyle's comedy-tinted "Hamish Macbeth," Gillian Anderson and Jamie Dornan's serial killer cat-and-mouse game "The Fall," and Netflix's cold case newcomer "Dept. Q" were in consideration, but ultimately lost to the following 15 shows.

Paul Rutman's Apple TV show "Criminal Record" is a collision between two generations of police work. "Doctor Who" star Peter Capaldi's Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) Daniel Hegarty is a grizzled veteran who seems to know it all, while Cush Jumbo's ("The Good Wife") Detective Sergeant (DS) June Lenker is a talented up-and-comer. Both are drawn into an old murder case, which they approach from their own angles that inevitably clash.

Capaldi and Jumbo are both tried-and-true TV stars whose chemistry alone is enough to raise the show above the rabble. Combine this with both characters being incredibly complex and layered, and the murder mystery that ties their fates together shaping up to be an all-timer, and the end result is nothing short of impressive.  

A few years down the line, "Criminal Record" may very well land a considerably higher spot on a revised version of this list. Even with only one season under its belt, though, its showing is more than strong enough to make the cut. Since Apple TV has renewed "Criminal Record" for Season 2, the show will get a chance to cement its legacy.

Some of the best British crime dramas are largely one-person shows, and "Prime Suspect" is no exception. The show focuses heavily on a strong-willed and powerful woman in a workplace rife with toxic masculinity — and when said woman is played by Helen Mirren, every other major character is stuck playing a distant second fiddle.

Mirren's DCI Jane Tennison is a dedicated officer whose approach to her job would be destined to take her career to the stars, if it weren't for her greatest enemy: the glass ceiling. Struggling with constant disrespect from the vast majority of her colleagues, Tennison is fighting uphill every step of the way. Fortunately, this doesn't stop her from being fearless and very good at her job, regardless of whether she needs to figure out tricky murder cases or point out potential shady activities among her own people. 

With seven seasons but only 15 episodes, "Prime Suspect" is a compact and binge-worthy show. From a contemporary viewer's standpoint, it's also notable for its absolute wealth of guest stars who range from Ralph Fiennes and "Criminal Record" star Peter Capaldi to Liam Cunningham and Ciarán Hinds of "Game of Thrones" fame.

Ben Chanan's "The Capture" is a prime example of a crime drama that steadily raises its stakes until it becomes something very different from how it began. Ostensibly, things begin when "Strike" star Holliday Grainger's newly appointed Detective Inspector Rachel Carey investigates a murder case involving a controversial military man called Shaun Emery (Callum Turner, "Masters of the Air"). However, things hit a snag when she discovers the footage that captured the crime might not be legitimate. 

Delving into the ramifications of deepfake technology and vast conspiracies, "The Capture" Season 1 is an interesting clash between traditional British police drama and twisty thriller, with "Sons of Anarchy" star Ron Perlman bringing an international threat into the mix as CIA man Frank Napier. Season 2 organically continues the story, introducing a fake video threat involving Security Minister Isaac Turner (Paapa Essiedu, "I May Destroy You").

A true British classic, "Vera" is all about the DCI Vera Stanhope (Brenda Blethyn, "Anne Frank: The Whole Story"). Unconventional and perennially nearing retirement, Vera can seem somewhat disheveled and out of it, but her iconic bucket hat hides a driven nature and a sharp mind that makes her the secret weapon of the Northumberland & City Police. Vera, in many ways, is much like her iconic Land Rover Defender: seemingly out of place in a line of shinier new police car models, but when it's time to trudge through miles of mud to figure out a key detail about the case at hand, let's see who reaches the goal line first. 

It's a testament to the pure quality of "Vera" that the show was able to retain the services of Blethyn, a two-time Academy Award nominee, for so many years. Still, even though Blethyn remained in the role well into her 70s, all good things come to an end. "Vera" ended with Season 14 in 2025, leaving a legacy of 56 feature-length episodes and a wealth of classic crime mysteries.

Chris Lang's London-based "Unforgotten" starts each of its seasons with the discovery of a body. The remains belong to a person who disappeared a long time ago, which leads to the cold case associated with the discovery being reopened. Thus, the story can begin.

The cases are invariably handled by the same team, which is led by DCI Cassie Stuart (Nicola Walker, "Babylon") for the first four seasons and by DCI Jessica James (Sinéad Keenan, "Being Human") from Season 5 onward. Their key colleague, DI Sunny Khan (Sanjeev Bhaskar, "The Kumars at No. 42") appears in all seasons of the show.

"Unforgotten" is a consistent series that excels on both personal and professional fronts. The murder investigations unfold as massive, well-paced puzzles that bring multiple strange people together in surprising ways and transform their lives. Meanwhile, Stuart, James, and Khan all have their own personal life issues, which the show manages to weave into the plot without taking away from the investigation at hand. 

Writer and creator Sally Wainwright's "Happy Valley" has been a consistent BAFTA award magnet since its inception. Should the British Academy of Film and Television Arts have a category for Most Misleading Title, it would likely have taken home its share of those, too. 

A rare British crime drama focusing on a uniformed officer, "Happy Valley" is all about Police Sergeant Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire, "Last Tango in Halifax"). A relentlessly tragic character whose bleak backstory would require several trigger warnings to fully describe, Cawood is nevertheless strong and driven enough to repeatedly get involved in nigh-impossible situations on both personal and professional fronts. What's more, she manages to push through, sometimes with little more than sheer willpower to support her. 

"Happy Valley," perhaps more than any other show on this list, excels in bringing the horrors of a crime drama into the mundanity of everyday life. Wisely, it also chooses against overplaying its hand when it comes to sustaining its unique atmosphere: The show ended in 2023 after three seasons, having allowed its characters to age and develop in real time while taking them in some seriously surprising directions.

Massive Attack's eerie "Paradise Circus" is the perfect theme for a show as haunting as "Luther." Created and penned by Neil Cross and starring "The Wire" standout Idris Elba as DCI John Luther, it starts out bleak and keeps turning up the intensity dial, accentuating its shades of gray with the occasional splash of blood. 

Elba's Luther is the personification of the show's complex, ambiguous themes. His iconic tweed overcoat reflects his gray morality, and there are few depths he won't sink to in his relentless mission to capture wrongdoers — and, preferably, keep himself out of jail. That last one is a time-consuming task, considering Luther's tendency to bend and break the law while chasing killers. 

Luther is a famous cowboy cop in a world where consequences exist, so he spends much of his time with several gigantic targets on his back. It doesn't help that he keeps attracting people like psychopathic genius Alice Morgan (Ruth Wilson, "The Affair") and the obsessive Detective Superintendent George Stark (David O'Hara, "The Tudors"), either. Fortunately, the vicious serial killers and criminal masterminds Luther so often hunts are so monstrous that he comes across as downright sympathetic compared to them. Most of the time, anyway.

Agatha Christie's "Miss Marple" stories have their fair share of live-action adaptations, but few can touch the long-running BBC version starring Joan Hickson ("Poor Little Rich Girls") as the titular Miss Jane Marple. A seemingly unassuming elderly lady, Miss Marple leads a quiet but active village life whenever evil isn't afoot. However, her social circles are extremely prone to mysteries and murders, and whenever Miss Marple encounters one, she unleashes her peerless deduction skills that invariably save the day.

Hickson played the role in 21 episodes of "Miss Marple" from 1984 to 1992, creating a version of the character that's as iconic as David Suchet's take on fellow Christie creation Hercule Poirot (more on him later on this list). Since the case-by-case nature of the stories means that all of the show's non-Marple roles were a revolving door of semi-regular characters and guest stars, the brunt of the show's allure rests on Hickson's shoulders. As the stealthily disapproving look she honed to perfection proves, the actress was more than up to the task. 

It might be strange to see a six-episode miniseries in the top 10 of a British crime drama list. "Bodyguard," however, is far from a normal show. 

Here, "Game of Thrones" star Richard Madden gives a tour de force performance as Police Sergeant David Budd, a Scottish ex-military man who works as the principal protection officer of the deeply unpopular Home Secretary Julia Montague (Keeley Hawes, "Ashes to Ashes") while secretly struggling with PTSD. Together, the bodyguard and the politician become targets in a turbulent web of terror attacks, assassination attempts, and political machinations that throw their personal and professional lives in far more disarray than they — let alone the viewer — could possibly have anticipated. The first of two shows by writer-creator Jed Mercurio on this list, "Bodyguard" is tension distilled, with a twisty conclusion that hits like a wrecking ball. 

"Bodyguard" remains a crime drama at its core, just a very tightly paced one with far higher stakes than usual. There's a reason why the show is so short, too. After all, even David Budd probably couldn't survive a second season in this mangler. 

Murders are rarely refined, but when Hercule Poirot (David Suchet, "NCS Manhunt") puts his "little grey cells" to work, you'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise. From 1989 to 2013, Suchet's fussy Belgian master detective appeared in an impressive 70 adventures, often accompanied by his sidekick-slash-friend Captain Hastings (Hugh Fraser, "Sharpe") and the hapless Chief Inspector Japp (Philip Jackson, "Sherwood"). 

The plots of the show's stories are guaranteed Agatha Christie top-tier mysteries, though perhaps a touch familiar due to their renown. Still, it's Suchet and the show's impressive guest star cavalcade who flesh out the stories and make them memorable. As a result, even if you know a "Poirot" episode by heart, it still serves well as a comfort watch. 

Many actors have portrayed Poirot over the years, and the more recent ones haven't been exactly small names. John Malkovich played Poirot on Prime Video's "The ABC Murders" (2019), and Kenneth Branagh has portrayed a somewhat fitter, angstier version of the character in several movies. Still, Suchet's lengthy tenure and charming take on the role mean that when people close their eyes and imagine Poirot, chances are his version is the one they're going to see. 

John Thaw ("The Sweeney") was already a seasoned crime drama veteran when he started playing the main character of "Inspector Morse," but it arguably became his defining role. The show's secret sauce is its setting, the university town of Oxford. Rich people and meddling academic institutions are constant hurdles, but as a flip side, the cases tend to end with entitled upper-class culprits getting what's theirs. The real drawing power, however, is DCI Endeavour Morse himself. As a grumpy beer aficionado from a blue-collar family who's nevertheless smart and cultured enough to give the high and mighty their just desserts, he's the perfect character to navigate the show's complexities. 

The popularity of "Inspector Morse" extended beyond the show's lifespan. After its seven seasons of feature-length episodes came to a close, a handful of specials followed. After they ended in 2000, it was time for spin-offs: "Lewis," which ran from 2006 to 2017, turned Morse's sidekick Robert Lewis (Kevin Whately, "Auf Wiedersehen, Pet") into an expy of his old boss, while the prequel show "Endeavour" ran from 2013 to 2023 and focused on the antics of young Endeavour Morse (Shaun Evans, "Vigil") himself.   

Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat's "Sherlock" changed the game when it comes to the Great Detective. Benedict Cumberbatch's Holmes is a self-admitted high-functioning sociopath who's stylish but detached from the world, save for a handful of loved ones. Chief among them is Dr. John Watson (Martin Freeman, "The Office"), who's far from a bumbling sidekick here, complementing Sherlock's cold intellect with warmth, wisdom, and social awareness. Even Holmes' most famous nemesis, the elusive mastermind Moriarty (Andrew Scott, "Fleabag"), gets a style upgrade for the ages. 

Creative, cool, and surprisingly sexy, "Sherlock" would no doubt be many fans' first choice for the greatest British crime drama of all time. However, even the most ardent "Sherlock" superfan would probably admit that the show suffers a considerable drop in quality during the tail end of its four-season run. Considering the sheer excellence and consistency of the shows it's up against, this is more than enough to bump "Sherlock" just outside the top three.

By sheer tenure alone, "Midsomer Murders" earns a place on the list. By virtue of being really very good, it manages to breach the Top 3.

To give you an idea of how long the show has been going, it's already on its second DCI Barnaby. "Doctor Who" can unleash surprising regeneration twists to change the lead actor, but "Midsomer Murders" (which premiered in 1997) had to figure out a more grounded trick when long-serving star DCI Tom Barnaby (John Nettles, "Bergerac") retired from the show in 2011. The choice was soap opera-inspired: Neil Dudgeon ("Messiah") stepped up as DCI John Barnaby, Tom's equally even-keeled cousin from out of town. 

The recipe that led to the show's success is deceptively simple. The titular Midsomer is a county pockmarked with various villages, and the duo of the serving Barnaby and his junior partner is responsible for investigating the various mysterious deaths in the region. The rural, nostalgic setting and a surprising number of strange murders intertwine with plenty of eccentricity and a pinch of comedy, resulting in a delicious dish that has continued to entice audiences for close to three decades.

David Tennant's Detective Inspector Alec Hardy doesn't want to be there, and Olivia Colman's Detective Sergeant Ellie Miller doesn't want Hardy to be there. The initial hostility of the two main police characters on "Broadchurch" is partly due to Hardy's move to the small titular town — costing Miller a promotion — and partly because they're very different people. Their evolving chemistry carries the show's first season as much as the murder mystery they're attempting to solve — and seeing as the murder of Danny Latimer (Oskar McNamara) is one for the ages, that's saying something. 

"Broadchurch" is a story about changes as much as it is one about crimes. As Hardy and Miller's professional relationship evolves, so does the community around them as the atrocities it's forced to witness run shockwaves through the town. Chris Chibnall's esteemed crime drama is noteworthy because it manages to follow up its objectively massive Season 1 with more mysteries and heartbreak, commenting and expanding on the show's themes without lowering the storytelling bar until its third and final season ends.

Jed Mercurio's "Line of Duty" has made waves since it premiered in 2012, thanks to its unique take on police work. Instead of solving crimes and chasing criminals, the show's Anti-Corruption Unit 12 turns its inquiring gaze on the police force itself.

There's a lot going on in AC-12's investigations, and the show likes to further muddy the waters by casting major names — think folks like Thandiwe Newton, Stephen Graham, and Lennie James — as characters who are suspected of corruption. There's also an elusive big fish known only as "H," who runs a vast organized conspiracy of bent officers, and "Line of Duty" loves to insinuate that key characters like AC-12 leader Superintendent Ted Hastings (Adrian Dunbar) may not be as squeaky clean as they seem. In other words, "Line of Duty" is a show about dirty cops being investigated by other cops who may or may not be dirty, and it's ultimately up to the viewer to decide the cleanliness of each character. Talk about layers.

"Line of Duty" ended in 2021, but after years of rumblings, the show was resurrected for a seventh season. It's set to premiere in 2026.