The home of British cozy crime for decades, the BBC has produced some of the most beloved mystery series in television history. From Miss Marple to Father Brown, BBC programming combines quintessentially British settings with intricate plotting and memorable detectives. Their commitment to high-quality period dramas and contemporary mysteries has made them the gold standard for cozy crime television.
2026 · 1 season · BBC
Set in the fictional village of Blossom Vale in the West Midlands during the 1970s, The Hairdresser Mysteries follows Lily Petal, a high-end London hair stylist who trades the competitive city scene for a small salon at the top of a quiet cobbled street.
2010 · 4 seasons · BBC
A modern reimagining of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's detective for 21st-century London, following the brilliant, emotionally detached consulting detective Sherlock Holmes and army veteran Dr John Watson as they form an unlikely, unbreakable partnership solving baffling crimes for the Metropolitan Police.
1999 · 15 seasons · BBC
Set in the fictional Sicilian town of Vigàta, Inspector Montalbano follows Commissario Salvo Montalbano, a sharp, sardonic, and deeply food-loving police chief who solves complex, often morally murky cases against a backdrop of stunning Sicilian coastline.
2008 · 8 seasons · BBC
Set in North East England during the 1960s, Inspector George Gently follows the eponymous incorruptible detective who relocates from London to Northumberland
2006 · 2 seasons · BBC
After being hit by a car in 2006, Manchester Detective Chief Inspector Sam Tyler wakes up in 1973, where he's now a Detective Inspector working under the command of the brutal, hard-drinking DCI Gene Hunt.
2024 · 2 seasons · BBC
John Taylor lives in quiet solitude, designing puzzles for a living, under the nom-de-plume of 'Ludwig'. When his identical twin, James, disappears off the face of the earth, John takes over his brother's identity in a quest to discover his whereabouts.
1979 · 2 seasons · BBC
Set in an unnamed city in the West of England and filmed in Bristol, Shoestring follows Eddie Shoestring, a rumpled former computer expert rebuilding his life after a breakdown, who becomes a private detective and the "Private Ear" of local station Radio West.
2021 · 2 seasons · BBC
Annika follows the sharp, witty and enigmatic DI Annika Strandhed as she heads up a new specialist Marine Homicide Unit (MHU) that is tasked with investigating the unexplained, brutal, and seemingly unfathomable murders that wash up in the waterways of Scotland
2013 · 13 seasons · BBC
Set in the fictional Cotswold village of Kembleford in the early 1950s, Father Brown follows a slightly rumpled, mild-mannered Catholic priest whose apparent innocence and unassuming manner belie a razor-sharp intellect and profound understanding of human nature.
2011 · 15 seasons · BBC
Set on the fictional Caribbean island of Saint Marie, Death in Paradise follows a succession of British detectives who, thrown into leading the local police force under very different circumstances, find themselves solving ingenious, locked-room-style murders against a backdrop of shimmering seas and sun-soaked beaches. Each detective brings his own quirks and quirks to the role
2013 · 10 seasons · BBC
Set amid the dramatic, windswept landscapes of Scotland's remote Shetland Islands, Shetland follows the local police team as they investigate murders within a close-knit island community where everyone knows everyone else's business—and secrets.
2024 · 1 season · BBC
Moonflower Murders follows Susan Ryeland, a former London book editor now running a struggling small hotel in Crete with her Greek partner Andreas, who is drawn back to England when a wealthy couple offers her a substantial sum to find their missing daughter.
2004 · 12 seasons · BBC
When three retired detectives are brought back to form the Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad (UCOS), their old-school methods clash with modern policing but prove surprisingly effective at cracking cold cases. Led by a determined DCI who must wrangle these stubborn, brilliant mavericks, the team discovers that you can teach old dogs new tricks - even if they resist every step of the way.
2008 · 4 seasons · BBC
Kenneth Branagh stars as Kurt Wallander, a weary, diabetic and increasingly disillusioned police inspector in the small town of Ystad in southern Sweden. His investigations into brutal crimes in the apparently sleepy backwaters of Skåne
2013 · 3 seasons · BBC
Set in the coastal town of Aberystwyth and the rugged, mountainous landscapes of Ceredigion in mid-Wales, Hinterland follows DCI Tom Mathias, a brooding detective who relocates from London's Metropolitan Police to rebuild his life amid Wales's stark and beautiful terrain.
2018 · 5 seasons · BBC
Frank Hathaway, a hardboiled private investigator, and his rookie sidekick Lu Shakespeare form the unlikeliest of partnerships as they investigate the secrets of rural Warwickshire's residents.
2017 · 6 seasons · BBC
War veteran Cormoran Strike operates a struggling private detective agency from a cramped London office, taking on complex cases that have baffled the police, aided by his assistant Robin Ellacott who proves far more capable than her temporary secretary role suggests. As they solve increasingly dangerous cases together, Strike battles his physical and psychological war wounds whilst an unspoken attraction grows between the mismatched pair, complicated by Robin's engagement and Strike's determination to keep their relationship strictly professional.
2015 · 1 season · BBC
In 1950s Britain, at the start of the Cold War, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford are a married couple keeping bees and growing restless with suburban life.
1995 · 3 seasons · BBC
In the breathtakingly beautiful Highland village of Lochdubh, laid-back Police Constable Hamish Macbeth patrols the streets with his West Highland Terrier, Wee Jock, solving crimes while determinedly avoiding promotion or transfer out of his ideal posting. With mystical elements including ghostly visions and clairvoyant premonitions, this charming Scottish mystery series blends quirky comedy, romantic entanglements, and community-focused policing in equal measure.
2022 · 1 season · BBC
When book editor Susan Ryeland receives the unfinished manuscript of bestselling author Alan Conway's latest Atticus Pünd mystery, she discovers the final chapter is missing and Conway is dead. As Susan searches for the missing pages, she realises that Conway's 1950s whodunit contains thinly veiled caricatures of real people in his life, and that his apparent suicide may actually be murder.
2023 · 4 seasons · BBC
Beyond Paradise follows Detective Inspector Humphrey Goodman who, after leaving the Caribbean island of Saint Marie, relocates to the fictional coastal town of Shipton Abbott in Devon to be with his fiancée Martha Lloyd.
1981 · 9 seasons · BBC
Set on the picturesque island of Jersey, Bergerac follows Detective Sergeant Jim Bergerac, a recovering alcoholic and divorced father who works for Le Bureau des Étrangers (The Foreigners' Office), investigating crimes involving non-Jersey residents. Unorthodox and maverick in his methods, Bergerac navigates complex cases among Jersey's wealthy tax exiles and criminals while driving his iconic burgundy 1947 Triumph Roadster.
2024 · 3 seasons · BBC
Set in the idyllic coastal hamlet of Dolphin Cove on Australia's Illawarra coast, Return to Paradise follows Mackenzie "Mack" Clarke, a golden girl of the London Metropolitan Police whose seemingly unrivalled detective instincts are overshadowed by a career-ending scandal, forcing her to return to the childhood home—and the murky past—she left behind six years earlier.
2019 · 3 seasons · BBC
The Mallorca Files follows the unlikely partnership between Miranda Blake, a serious, by-the-book British detective, and Max Winter, a laid-back, unconventional German detective
