20 Best British Crime Dramas of All Time, Ranked

The best British crime dramas do far more than reveal who committed the crime. They examine damaged communities, difficult moral choices and the personal cost of pursuing the truth. From tightly plotted police procedurals to mysteries in apparently peaceful towns, British television has repeatedly found new ways to make familiar crime stories feel urgent.

This ranking brings together landmark series, modern favourites and shows that changed what viewers expected from crime television. Some are driven by one unforgettable detective, while others place an entire institution or community under suspicion.

20. Unforgotten

Unforgotten understands that an old crime never truly stays in the past. Each series begins with the discovery of human remains and gradually connects a group of people whose present-day lives are threatened by what happened years earlier.

The programme gives victims, relatives and suspects equal dramatic weight. Its investigations move patiently, allowing apparently ordinary lives to reveal layers of guilt, regret and self-protection. That human focus distinguishes it from faster police thrillers.

19. Shetland

The landscape is central to Shetland. Its islands appear beautiful and isolated, but that isolation also increases the pressure when a serious crime occurs. Everyone seems connected, privacy is limited and an investigation can disturb relationships built across generations.

Douglas Henshall established the programme’s restrained tone as Jimmy Pérez, while Ashley Jensen later brought a different energy as Ruth Calder. The change in lead demonstrates that the setting and community have always been as important as any single detective.

18. The Fall

Set in Belfast, The Fall removes much of the usual mystery by identifying the killer early. The tension comes from watching Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson close the distance between the police and a man who maintains a convincing everyday identity.

Gillian Anderson gives Gibson an unusual stillness and authority. Jamie Dornan’s Paul Spector is disturbing because the series avoids presenting him as a theatrical criminal mastermind. The result is a cold, controlled drama about predatory behaviour, institutional failure and the limits of perception.

17. Life on Mars

Life on Mars combines a police procedural with science fiction and period drama. After an accident, modern Manchester detective Sam Tyler wakes in 1973, where policing methods, workplace attitudes and social rules are markedly different.

The central question—whether Sam has travelled through time, entered a coma or lost his grip on reality—gives the series its mystery. Yet its lasting appeal comes from the uneasy partnership between Sam and Gene Hunt, two detectives with opposing ideas about justice.

16. The Missing

Rather than treating a disappearance as a puzzle that can be neatly solved, The Missing shows how uncertainty reshapes families. Its timelines move between the immediate investigation and the lasting consequences, making time itself part of the story.

Tchéky Karyo’s Julien Baptiste became the programme’s defining investigator and later led his own spin-off. His patient manner suits stories in which one overlooked detail can remain important for years.

15. The Responder

Martin Freeman plays Chris Carson, a Liverpool response officer working punishing night shifts while his personal life and mental health deteriorate. The series is less concerned with a conventional whodunnit than with the compromises that accumulate when someone works under relentless pressure.

Its Liverpool setting feels specific rather than decorative. Conversations are tense, funny and unpredictable, and the distinction between offender, victim and police officer is rarely simple.

14. Vera

DCI Vera Stanhope has become one of British television’s most recognisable detectives. Brenda Blethyn gives the character warmth, impatience, intelligence and an ability to notice what others dismiss.

The Northumberland landscapes create a strong sense of place, but the programme’s longevity rests on accessible mysteries and Vera’s understanding of people. She can be abrupt with colleagues while showing unexpected sensitivity to witnesses and bereaved families.

13. Cracker

Robbie Coltrane’s Eddie Fitz Fitzgerald is a psychologist whose insight into offenders contrasts sharply with the disorder in his private life. Cracker helped make psychological profiling central to British crime television without turning its protagonist into a spotless hero.

The stories are often confrontational and emotionally difficult. Fitz can understand a suspect’s motivation while failing to apply similar honesty to himself, giving the programme an uncomfortable dramatic edge.

12. The Night Manager

Although it sits between crime drama and espionage thriller, The Night Manager earns its place through its study of organised criminal power. Tom Hiddleston plays Jonathan Pine, who infiltrates the operation of arms dealer Richard Roper, played with smiling menace by Hugh Laurie.

Its international locations and polished production give it the scale of a feature film. Beneath that surface is a tense story about performance: nearly every major character must conceal an intention, allegiance or fear.

11. Endeavour

This prequel to Inspector Morse could have relied on affection for an established character. Instead, it built a convincing identity of its own. Shaun Evans portrays the younger Endeavour Morse as brilliant, sensitive and already developing the habits that will shape his later life.

The 1960s Oxford setting allows the series to explore changing institutions and attitudes. Its cases are carefully constructed, but the gradual development of Morse’s relationships gives the programme its emotional continuity.

10. Slow Horses

The disgraced intelligence officers of Slough House may work for MI5, but Slow Horses shares the cynicism, danger and moral uncertainty of Britain’s best crime series. Gary Oldman’s Jackson Lamb is rude, dishevelled and strategically far sharper than he allows others to believe.

The programme balances suspense with dry comedy and refuses to make the intelligence service appear effortlessly competent. Mistakes, office politics and damaged careers matter as much as international threats.

9. Prime Suspect

Helen Mirren’s Jane Tennison is a landmark television detective. Prime Suspect follows difficult murder investigations while examining the sexism Tennison faces within the police.

The series never reduces her to a symbol. Tennison is talented, ambitious and sometimes personally destructive. By allowing its central character to be formidable and flawed, the programme influenced many of the police dramas that followed.

8. Inspector Morse

Oxford’s colleges, pubs and quiet streets provide the setting for mysteries shaped by pride, jealousy and deception. John Thaw’s Morse is intellectual and irritable, fond of real ale and opera, and far from naturally sociable.

His partnership with Lewis provides warmth and balance. The mysteries reward attention, but the melancholy surrounding Morse is a major reason the series has retained its hold over viewers.

7. The Capture

What happens when video evidence can no longer be trusted? The Capture turns surveillance technology into the source of its tension, following investigations in which apparently conclusive footage may have been manipulated.

The premise feels increasingly relevant as synthetic media improves. Rather than using technology as background decoration, the drama asks how courts, police and the public can establish truth when seeing is no longer believing.

6. Luther

Idris Elba gives DCI John Luther an intensity that dominates the screen. Luther is perceptive enough to enter the minds of dangerous offenders, but his obsession with cases repeatedly damages his own life.

The series often borrows the scale and menace of psychological horror. Its most memorable relationship is between Luther and Alice Morgan, whose intelligence and amorality make her more than a conventional adversary.

5. Foyle’s War

Set during and after the Second World War, Foyle’s War examines crimes that unfold while national attention is directed elsewhere. Michael Kitchen’s Christopher Foyle is quiet, observant and guided by the belief that wartime cannot excuse private wrongdoing.

The period detail supports rather than overwhelms the stories. Black markets, political pressure and social change create motives that could only emerge from that historical moment.

4. Broadchurch

The death of a child exposes the secrets and resentments within a Dorset coastal community. David Tennant and Olivia Colman make Alec Hardy and Ellie Miller a memorable detective partnership, but Broadchurch never forgets the family at the centre of the case.

Its first series became a shared national viewing experience because each revelation changed how audiences viewed people they thought they understood. The coastline is both beautiful and forbidding, reinforcing the contrast between the town’s public face and private grief.

3. Sherlock

Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss moved Sherlock Holmes into modern London without losing the intellectual contest that defines Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective. Smartphones, blogs and contemporary forensics become tools, but observation remains Sherlock’s greatest advantage.

Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman create a fast, funny and occasionally abrasive partnership. The feature-length episodes allow individual cases to feel like television events.

2. Happy Valley

Sarah Lancashire’s Catherine Cawood is a police sergeant carrying grief, family responsibility and professional pressure in a West Yorkshire community. She is capable and brave without becoming invulnerable.

Sally Wainwright’s writing connects crime to its social and emotional consequences. James Norton’s Tommy Lee Royce is frightening, but the drama never lets him take ownership of Catherine’s story. Across three series, the programme builds towards an ending earned through years of character development.

1. Line of Duty

Line of Duty turned internal police investigations into gripping mainstream television. AC-12 interviews can be as tense as an armed confrontation because every answer, document and inconsistency may shift the balance of a case.

Jed Mercurio’s drama examines institutional loyalty and the ways corruption can hide behind procedure. Adrian Dunbar, Vicky McClure and Martin Compston form its central team, while a succession of high-profile guest leads gives each series a different focus. Its acronyms entered popular conversation, but the underlying question was always simple: can an institution investigate itself honestly?

What makes a great British crime drama?

The finest programmes combine a satisfying investigation with consequences that continue after the culprit is identified. A strong setting matters, whether it is the West Yorkshire valleys, Oxford colleges, the Shetland Islands or an anti-corruption interview room.

The detective also needs limitations. Morse’s isolation, Luther’s obsession and Catherine Cawood’s grief do not merely add colour; they shape how each character investigates. The best British crime dramas understand that solving a case and repairing the damage are rarely the same thing.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best British crime drama?

Line of Duty takes first place in this ranking for combining intricate investigations, memorable characters and a sustained examination of police corruption. Happy Valley, Broadchurch and Prime Suspect are equally strong starting points for different styles of crime drama.

Which British detective series is best for beginners?

Broadchurch is an accessible introduction because its first series presents one central investigation with strong performances and a clear emotional focus. Viewers who prefer self-contained mysteries may favour Vera or Inspector Morse.

What should I watch after Line of Duty?

Try The Capture for institutional conspiracy, Happy Valley for character-led policing or Unforgotten for carefully developed cold cases.

Author Profile

Mark Boardman

Mark Boardman is an established showbiz journalist and freelance copywriter whose work has been published in Business Insider, Daily Mail, Bloomberg, MTV, Buzzfeed, and The New York Post, amongst other media. Often spotted on the red carpet at celebrity events and film screenings, Mark is a regular guest on BBC Radio London and in demand for his opinions on media outlets such as Newsweek, Daily Express, and OK! Magazine, as well as Heart radio, Capital FM, LBC, and Radio 2. His TV credits include ITV News, This Morning, BBC News, The One Show, Sky News, GB News, and Channel T4. Mark is a keen traveller having visited 40+ countries, and a devout sports fan who also attends as many gigs as he can across the capital when not rubbing shoulders with the stars. Email Mark@MarkMeets.com