Focus on relationships, character development over plot
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.
2021 · 5 seasons · Disney+
Set in the fictional Arconia, an opulent Upper West Side apartment building in New York City, Only Murders in the Building follows three strangers—washed-up actor Charles-Haden Savage, flamboyant theatre director Oliver Putnam, and mysterious young resident Mabel Mora—who bond over a shared obsession with true crime podcasts, only to find themselves investigating an actual murder within their own building.
1971 · 10 seasons · ITV
Set primarily in Los Angeles, Columbo follows Lieutenant Columbo, a rumpled, cigar-chomping LAPD homicide detective whose shambling, absent-minded manner disguises a razor-sharp analytical mind.
2026 · 1 season · Prime
Set in 1870s Oxford, Young Sherlock follows a disgraced 19-year-old Sherlock Holmes—raw, unfiltered, and lacking discipline—as he finds himself embroiled in a murder investigation that threatens his liberty.
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
2013 · 5 seasons
Set in the goldfields city of Ballarat, Victoria, in the late 1950s, The Doctor Blake Mysteries follows Dr Lucien Blake, who returns home after a thirty-year absence to take over his late father's general medical practice
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.
2025 · 1 season · Channel 5
In 1980s England, Canon Daniel Clement, the Rector of Champton, finds himself unexpectedly entangled in a murder case when a dead body turns up in the church. When Daniel announces a plan to modernize the church, the parish is suddenly divided. And then a body is found dead at the back of the church.
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
1997 · 5 seasons
Jonathan Creek, a magician's creative consultant with a natural ability for solving puzzles, works from his home in a converted windmill and uses his abilities to solve impossible crimes and mysterious murders.
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
2014 · 11 seasons · ITV
In 1953 at the hamlet of Grantchester, Sidney Chambers—a charismatic, charming clergyman—turns investigative vicar when one of his parishioners dies in suspicious circumstances.
2021 · 4 seasons · ITV
Set against the stunning backdrop of one of the world's most prestigious educational institutions, Cambridge University, Professor T is centered around the eccentric, but brilliant Criminology Professor Jasper Tempest, who suffers with OCD and has a tortured past.
2003 · 3 seasons · ITV
Brought together by professional and personal heartache, two plucky ladies plant the seeds for a brighter future. Rosemary Boxer, with a doctorate in plant pathology, and Laura Thyme, a former police constable and avid gardener, discover their shared love of green-thumbness and start a gardening business.
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.
2022 · 2 seasons · ITV
Set in Scotland and based on Val McDermid's acclaimed novels, Karen Pirie follows a young, fearless Detective Sergeant working for Police Scotland's Historic Cases Unit as she tackles cold case murders that have remained unsolved for decades.
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.
2024 · 3 seasons · U
Judith, Suzie and Becks start an investigation. To assist with official police investigation, headed by Tanika, They must suspect witnesses, and face down real danger as they work against the clock to stop the killer in their tracks.
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.
2018 · 1 season · BBC
Set in 1933, several years after his heyday, an older, greyer, and largely forgotten Hercule Poirot begins receiving taunting letters threatening murder from a mysterious sender who signs themselves only "A.B.C."
2026 · 1 season · U
Set in the quaint New England town of Founders' Cove, You're Killing Me follows bestselling novelist Allie Chandler, who forms an unlikely alliance with aspiring writer and true crime podcaster Andi Walker to find the killer of a close friend
2022 · 2 seasons · ITV
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.
2025 · 1 season · Channel 5
Set in the mystery-shrouded Peak District, the series follows two mismatched young detectives: affable local Ben Cooper and guarded newcomer Diane Fry.
2026 · 1 season · BBC
Set against the sweeping Northumberland coastline and its surrounding market towns, The Northumbria Mysteries pairs Joe Ruby, a jack-of-all-trades and ex-convict with links to the criminal world, with DI Rose O'Connell, an Oxford-educated detective and rarefied intellectual with an ice-cool manner
