It’s not only that online HIIT class that’ll have you breaking a sweat in your living room, a good thriller will do that too. Some of the best TV shows around right now have an uncanny capacity to send our pulses racing, with murder, mayhem and mystery in the mix.

From recent hits (Netflix smash-hit Black Doves) to classics (The Fall), British TV offers a fine line in crime shows, blending foolhardy detectives and evasive witnesses with a lineup of spectacularly evil leads. And, of course, it’s all dished up with a healthy dollop of chilling mind games and underwritten by nail-biting suspense.

Here are 28 of our favourites to catch up from the comfort of your couch.

Adolescence tells the story of how a family’s world is turned upside down when 13-year-old Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper) is arrested for the murder of a teenage girl who goes to his school. 

The gripping four-part limited series stars Stephen Graham, Erin Doherty and Ashley Walters and each episode is filmed in one continuous shot. The story unfolds in real time as the main characters, from the central family to the detectives investigating the crime, search for answers in the wake of a shocking tragedy.

Watch Adolescence on Netflix.

Set in Bradford, this centres on Detective Harry Virdee (Staz Nair), who was estranged from his Sikh family when he married Saima (Aysha Kala), a Muslim. As well as a personal life in crisis, at work he’s trying to stop the eruption of gangland warfare and confront his own ties to the criminal underworld.

Watch Virdee on BBC iPlayer.

Black Doves follows Helen Webb (Keira Knightley), a quick-witted, dedicated wife and mother – and professional spy. For 10 years, she’s been passing on her politician husband’s secrets to the shadowy organisation she works for, the Black Doves. But when her secret lover, Jason, is assassinated, her spymaster, the enigmatic Reed (Sarah Lancashire), calls in Helen’s old friend to keep her safe.

Watch Black Doves on Netflix.

Series one of Sherwood, about a murder investigation in a former mining village, was utterly engrossing and there were more twists, turns and emotional upheaval in the second season.

David Morrissey reprises his role as DCS Ian St Clair who is dealing with the fallout of the two murderers in series one – as well as the revelation there was a spy in their midst. There are also two new families getting entangled in proceedings. Series one stars Lesley Manville and Lorraine Ashbourne are joined by David Harewood, Robert Lindsay, Monica Dolan and Sharlene Whyte.

Watch S1 and S2 of Sherwood on BBC iPlayer.

When a fire tears through a holiday home in a small Lancashire town, rookie detective Ember Manning (Jenna Coleman) is tasked with working out “how it connects to a podcast journalist investigating a missing persons cold case and an illicit ‘love’ triangle between a man in his 20s and two underage girls” in The Jetty.

But as Ember starts to get close to the truth, it threatens to destroy her life – forcing her to re-evaluate everything she thought she knew about “her past, present and the town she’s always called home”.

Watch The Jetty on BBC iPlayer.

The first series from novelist Helen Walsh (Brass, The Lemon Grove), this ‘whydunnit’ examines the intertwined sex lives, loyalties and rivalries of a group of teens who are balancing life between highly competitive sports and their highly surveillant parents. When one of them is attacked at a rave, the toxicity of their upbringing boils over.

Watch The Gathering on Channel 4.

Baby Reindeer is the gripping based-on-a-true-story mini series that will stay with you long after the final episode. After an act of kindness towards a lonely stranger, failing comedian Donny (played by Richard Gadd) finds himself led down a twisty road of stalking and obsession, paved with hundreds of hours of voice messages and north of 40,000 emails.

Watch Baby Reindeer on Netflix.

Set in a town hit by a devastating flood, the series follows the story of PC Joanna Marshall, who is tasked with finding out what happened to an unidentified man found dead in a lift in an underground car park.

Her colleagues assume that he became trapped in the lift as the flood waters rose, but as the investigation unfolds, questions begin to arise around his death and PC Marshall becomes obsessed with finding out what really happened. How did he get in the lift? And why does no one in the town seem to know who he is?

Watch After The Flood on ITVX.

Turn your brain off and strap in for this claustrophobic thriller which sees Richard Armitage as a doctor being framed for a crime he didn’t commit (no!) and flown under police escort to China to face trial (what!). The double G&Ts are piling up – unfortunately, so are the bodies. But who is murdering people on the plane, and what does it have to do with the framing? You’ll find out once you’ve accidentally binged the lot.

Watch Red Eye on ITVX.

Starring Peter Capaldi and Cush Jumbo, the new Apple TV+ series follows the two detectives as they come together to work on an old murder case after they receive an anonymous phone call. Capaldi’s DCI Daniel Hegarty is determined to protect his legacy whereas Jumbo’s DS June Lenker is in the early stages of her career – can the two work together to solve the case?

Watch Criminal Record on Apple TV+.

Starring Ruth Wilson, the series follows Lorna Brady who’s been struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder and sleepwalking since she was locked away in a convent at the age of 15. One morning, Lorna wakes up to find a dead woman in her house – with no recollection of who she is, how she got into her home or whether Lorna herself was involved in the woman’s death.

Watch The Woman In The Wall on BBC iPlayer.

Payback follows the story of accountant Lexie Noble (played by Morven Christie) as her life is torn apart following the murder of her husband, Jared. But as she comes to terms with his death, Lexie discovers that Jared was involved with local crime lord Cal Morris and is forced into working for him to find the money her husband failed to deliver before he died.

Watch Payback on ITVX.

Without spoiling too much of the plot, The Capture is a crime thriller with a modern twist. The first season follows young detective DCI Rachel Carey (played by Holliday Grainger) as she’s assigned the case of a British soldier (Callum Turner) who is charged with a crime. But as the investigation unfolds, she begins to discover that not everything is as it seems…

Watch The Capture on Prime Video.

In this series, Vicky McClure takes on the role of Lana Washington, a bomb disposal operative within the Met’s bomb disposal squad, who is working to keep London safe during a “terrorist summer campaign”. Expect a whole lot of action and suspense.

Watch Trigger Point on ITVX.

Played by Outlander’s Lauren Lyle, this drama centres on Karen Pirie, a detective tasked with reviewing the cold case of Rosie Duff – a murder that occurred 25 years ago. While investigating the case, it becomes clear to Pirie that she’s been hired to save the reputation of a police department that’s been hit with accusations of negligence. But there’s more to this murder case than first meets the eye.

The good news is that Karen Pirie has been renewed for a second season, which is currently in production.

Watch Karen Pirie on ITVX.

The Responder centres on Chris Carson (played by Martin Freeman), who works night shifts as an urgent response officer in and around Liverpool. Tasked with taking on a new rookie partner called Rachel (played by Adelayo Adedayo), the pair discover that “survival in this high pressure, relentless nighttime world will depend on them either helping or destroying each other”.

Watch The Responder on BBC iPlayer.

The first season of this heart-racing BBC drama mainly takes place in a submarine, and honestly, the close confines really do add to the pressure and tension of the series. Vigil is high-octane and addictive to watch. But we could expect nothing less from a drama that comes from the same producers as Line Of Duty, right?

For season two, the story takes viewers from the sea to the skies where DCI Amy Silva (Suranne Jones) and DS Kirsten Longacre (Rose Leslie) are tasked with uncovering the cause of multiple unexplained deaths on a Royal Air Force military base.

Watch Vigil on BBC iPlayer.

Expect dark turns and shocking twists as Yorkshire police sergeant Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire) comes to terms with her broken marriage; the suicide of her teenage daughter, Becky; and bringing up the young son that was a product of her rape.

Over three series, she battles to keep her family together while hunting a serial killer and dealing with her obsession to bring the man who abused her daughter to justice.

Written by Bafta award-winning Sally Wainwright, who also brought Gentleman Jack and Scott & Bailey to our screens, Cawood’s once-happy life unravels even further in the third and final series.

Watch Happy Valley on BBC iPlayer.

In every case across Unforgotten’s five series, nothing is black and white. As detectives DCI Cassie Stuart (Nicola Walker) and DI Sunny Khan (Sanjeev Bhaskar) attempt to solve cold cases of disappearance and murder, they are confronted with unimaginable truths about the people around them, and themselves. Can we ever really know the people closest to us? Can we even ever really know ourselves?

Watch Unforgotten on ITVX.

Just because a stranger is charming and well-dressed, it doesn’t mean they aren’t dangerous. Set in the mid-1970s, The Serpent is based on the crimes of serial killer Charles Sobhraj, who murdered young tourists traveling through Thailand. 

At the height of his crimes, a Dutch diplomat begins investigating the murders and uncovers clues leading to the elusive Sobhraj. Starring Tahar Rahim and Jenna Coleman, this epic game of cat and mouse involves switched identities and takes place across the globe. 

Watch The Serpent on Netflix.

An unmissable series for those who love the creepier style of drama, The Fall centres on a serial killer (Jamie Dornan) who’s wreaking havoc upon the young women of Belfast – in a particularly horrible string of home murders. But the hunter is also being hunted, as a leading detective (Gillian Anderson) enters the fray, determined to find out who is breaking, entering and killing with intent. What follows is a tantalising chase, with each party ready to outsmart the other while the killer maintains the appearance of being an everyday family man.

Watch The Fall on Netflix.

A show that wins the award for feminist thriller of the decade, Killing Eve will draw you in with its irresistible blend of comedy, courage and unhampered horror. Villanelle (Jodie Comer) is a deadly assassin who leaves a trail of mutilated bodies in her wake. But her Achilles heel is Eve (Sandra Oh), the British intelligence officer charged with tracking her down.

Over the course of four seasons, the two embark on a bloody game of cat-and-mouse, the boundaries of which are never entirely clear to a legion of captivated viewers. Fiona Shaw co-stars as Eve’s boss in a dark comedy-meets-crime drama that should be top of your watch list.

Watch Killing Eve on BBC iPlayer.

You’ll want to get all your police acronyms in a row for this smash-hit BBC police drama from Jed Mercurio. Line Of Duty steps inside the murky world of AC-12, an anti-corruption police investigation unit where nothing is as it seems. Martin Compston and Vicky McClure play the detectives responsible for busting crime rings operating from within the police force: a mission that often takes them undercover – with the constant risk of being exposed. Finishing on series six, this is the twisty thriller gift that keeps on giving.

Watch Line of Duty on BBC iPlayer.

This drama has enjoyed a three-season run on ITV, but most fans would agree that the first series is the best. A world-weary investigator (David Tennant) joins forces with a local detective (Olivia Colman) when the body of a boy appears on a beach one morning, sending shockwaves through a close-knit coastal community. Who is responsible, and who’s covering their tracks? Each new turn will keep you guessing in this compulsively watchable drama. Season two of Broadchurch continues with the case, while the third series focuses on the aftermath of a disturbing sexual assault. 

Watch Broadchurch on ITVX.

Another hit from Line Of Duty creator Jed Mercurio, Bodyguard follows a troubled war veteran (Richard Madden) who is assigned to protect a high-ranking MP (Keeley Hawes) who may be the target of a terror plot. Personal and professional worlds collide in an unbearably tense plot that combines international politics with a side serving of morality and intrigue. Who is being their true self – and who is using a facade? 

Watch Bodyguard on Netflix.

Luther is the kind of addictive crime series you can watch time and again. Fast-paced and gritty, it delves into the world of workaholic detective John (the brilliant Idris Elba) and his surreal relationship with psychopathic killer Alice (Ruth Wilson) – amid a spate of other dark and disturbing cases that play out in London’s criminal underworld. Running to five series in full, the award-winning drama is shocking and compulsively watchable.

Watch Luther on BBC iPlayer.

This critically acclaimed crime series offers a fresh new take on the police procedural – each episode plays out in the confines of a starkly-lit interrogation room and follows a new narrative each time. Sophie Okonedo stars as a special witness and the wife of a man accused of multiple murders in the new season two of the drama, along with Sharon Horgan and Game Of Thrones’s Kit Harington. A true psycho-drama, Criminal will get inside your head and stay there for weeks. 

Watch Criminal on Netflix.

An epic period drama that rolls back the clock to 1920s Birmingham, Peaky Blinders revolves around one of the city’s most notorious criminal gangs. Mastermind Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) is the swaggering gangster boss at the heart of a lawless operation designed to build an empire, with sidekicks played by Helen McCrory, Joe Cole and Paul Anderson. A stylish and powerful series with a welcome dash of historical intrigue.

Watch Peaky Blinders on BBC iPlayer.

Main image: Netflix