Set in a fictional northern English town, Ridley follows Alex Ridley, a recently retired Detective Inspector grieving the loss of his wife and daughter, who is drawn back into police work as a consultant when his former protégée, DI Carol Farman, needs help cracking a complex murder. Moody, rain-soaked and unhurried, the series pairs a world-weary old hand with the modern police team he once trained, while Ridley finds comfort in the one thing that keeps him going outside work: singing at a local jazz club.
Ridley is a British crime drama created and written by Paul Matthew Thompson (a writer on Vera) and co-created by Jonathan Fisher, produced by West Road Pictures for ITV. It premiered on 28 August 2022 and has run for two series of four feature-length episodes each. Series 2 returned on 10 August 2025 after a three-year gap, with the final episode airing on 25 August. Adrian Dunbar stars as Alex Ridley and is also an associate producer, following his acclaimed turn as Ted Hastings in Line of Duty. The premise was inspired by real-life retired detectives who return to work as police consultants.
Ridley is introduced soon after the deaths of his wife Kate and daughter Ella in a house fire, and the show’s grief and longing run through its sets and mood. He lives in a lakeside house surrounded by his jazz records and photographs, and he sings in a jazz club, which became one of the series’ most talked-about trademarks. Lead producer Juliet Charlesworth described the look as autumnal, with heavy skies and falling leaves to mirror Ridley’s sadness. His former protégée DI Carol Farman (Bronagh Waugh, Unforgotten) brings him in on the toughest cases, working alongside DCI Paul Goodwin (Terence Maynard), DC Darren Lakhan (George Bukhari) and pathologist Dr Wendy Newstone (Georgie Glen). Julie Graham plays Annie Marling.
Each episode is a self-contained, ninety-minute murder investigation, from a man falling from a balcony to a jewellery heist that turns deadly and a shooting at an illegal rave, with the character drama of Ridley’s grief running underneath. Critics praised Dunbar’s performance while noting that the series sticks closely to familiar British police-drama conventions rather than trying to reinvent them. It’s less cosy than many entries on CCI, but it shares the genre’s appeal of a rumpled, humane older detective, an ensemble team and a strong sense of place in the Pennine landscape.
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United Kingdom
United Kingdom
