Whether in podcast, book or TV form, our obsession with dark and gritty narratives just keeps building. From true crime offerings to twist-laden procedurals,  detective dramas have proved to be unmissable viewing in recent years.

There’s just something about the mix of suspense, grit and complex, compelling characters that has us coming back for more. Think Kate Winslet giving one of the best performances of her career in Mare Of Easttown or Sarah Lancashire as a grieving police officer in Happy Valley. A crime series is always improved when you have someone to really root for – particularly when this someone is the sort of detective who’s willing to go to the ends of the earth to crack their case.

And so, with that in mind, we’ve rounded up the very best detective drama shows of all time.

Missing You

According to the Netflix synopsis: “Eleven years ago, Detective Kat Donovan’s fiance, Josh, the love of her life, disappeared and she’s never heard from him since. Now, swiping profiles on a dating app, she suddenly sees his face and her world explodes all over again. Josh’s reappearance will force her to dive back into the mystery surrounding her father’s murder and uncover long-buried secrets from her past.”

Missing You is available to stream on Netflix.

The Jetty

When a fire tears through a property in a scenic Lancashire lake town, Detective Ember Manning (Jenna Coleman) must work 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.

But as Ember gets 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.

The Jetty is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

Virdee

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.

Virdee is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

The Crow Girl

Beginning with the discovery of a teenage boy’s body, DCI Jeanette Kilburn works with psychotherapist Sophia Craven to search for the killer – despite her superiors at work telling her not to pursue the case.

The investigation draws the women into a dangerous world marked by historic abuse and murder, and together they uncover a chain of shocking events that have gone overlooked for decades – as well as evidence of police corruption within DCI Kilburn’s own ranks.

The Crow Girl is available to stream on Paramount+.

DI Ray

Bend It Like Beckham’s Parminder Nagra leads this drama written by Line Of Duty alum Maya Sondhi (who played PC Maneet Bindra in Mercurio’s show). When DI Rachita Ray is moved onto a murder case, her colleagues want her to confirm it’s a “culturally sensitive homicide” or a so-called honour killing. The clues suggest otherwise, though, prompting Ray to defy her bosses and delve deeper into a tangled web of motives.

DI Ray is available to stream on the ITV Hub.

Sherwood

When a former miner is murdered, struck down by an arrow, detective Ian St Clair (David Morrissey) is forced to return to his Nottinghamshire hometown and confront his memories of policing the strikes in the Eighties, helped by an officer from the Met Police (Robert Glenister) who also has a personal connection to the case. James Graham’s staggering drama turns your expectations upside down almost immediately by revealing the culprit’s identity towards the end of the first episode, but that only ramps up the tension in this layered, politically-charged piece.

Sherwood is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

Bloodlands

With Jed Mercurio on board as an executive producer, Bloodlands will certainly pique the interest of Line Of Duty fans. When a car belonging to a former IRA operative is dredged from a loch near Belfast, DI Tom Brannick (James Nesbitt) discovers a connection to a cold case from around the time of the peace process, concerning an assassin code-named Goliath. All the signs suggest that the killer must have been an inside man.

Bloodlands is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

Karen Pirie

A true crime podcast prompts police to re-open the investigation into the unsolved murder of a young woman, and in a bid to improve the optics, 20-something detective Karen Pirie is placed on the case. Written by Emer Kenny and starring Vigil’s Lauren Lyle, this adaptation of Val McDermid’s novel turns many of the genre’s dusty tropes on their head, resulting in a three-part series that’s fresh and propulsive.

Karen Pirie is available to stream on the ITV Hub.

Mare of Easttown

Kate Winslet adds to her already iconic list of roles by playing Mare Sheehan, a small-town detective who is assigned to investigate the murder of a young girl. The line between her personal life and professional duties soon begins to blur, and it’s not long before she finds herself struggling to stop her world from falling apart around her. As the show’s official synopsis puts it, Mare of Easttown is an “exploration into the dark side of a close community and an authentic examination of how family and past tragedies can define our present.”

Mare of Easttown is available to stream on NOW.

Undercover  

In Undercover, Maya (Sophie Okonedo) is a high-ranking lawyer poised to become the first Black director of public prosecutions. But just as Maya’s life comes under intense public scrutiny, she is forced to turn detective when she discovers that Nick (Adrian Lester), her husband and the father of her children, has been lying to her for years. And his web of lies threatens to destroy not only her career, but also the life she and Nick built together.

Undercover is available to stream on BritBox.

Prime Suspect 

Detective Jane Tennison (Emmy-winner Helen Mirren) is the sort of flawed but sympathetic hero that paved the way for all those brilliant female detectives who came after her. 

In the first of a whopping seven seasons, she’s battling the contempt of her male colleagues in 90s Manchester when she’s suddenly thrust into a murder case. Will Tennison solve it before the killer strikes again? 

Prime Suspect is available to stream on BritBox.

Marcella

Starring Anna Friel as DS Marcella Backland, the critically-acclaimed ITV drama (directed and produced by Swedish screenwriter Hans Rosenfeldt) is basically a British version of a Scandi noir – boasting gruesome murders, dark lighting, and covetable knitwear galore. 

Marcella are available to stream on the ITV Hub.

Happy Valley

It may be called Happy Valley, but this series is anything but. Starring Sarah Lancashire as Catherine Cawood, it sees the strong-willed detective struggle to cope following her daughter Becky’s suicide. But, as she slowly becomes obsessed with the man responsible for Becky’s rape, Catherine finds herself unwittingly drawn into a dark kidnapping plot.

Happy Valley is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

Luther

One of the BBC’s most gripping and original detective dramas, Luther follows detective DCI John Luther (Idris Elba) as he takes down some of the most twisted and violent criminals in London. And he does so while struggling with anger issues that threaten to wreck both his career and personal life, too.

Luther is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

Criminal: UK

In this completely innovative take on the police procedural, each episode of Criminal: UK is a stand-alone psychological drama, consisting of the interrogation of an individual by an expert team of police investigators. And it makes for incredibly tense viewing.

Criminal: UK is available to stream on Netflix.

Fargo

Inspired by the 1996 film of the same name, which was written and directed by the Coen brothers, the first season of the Emmy-winning Fargo focuses on deputies Molly Solverson (Allison Tolman) and Gus Grimly (Colin Hanks) as they investigate a triple homicide in Bemidji, Minnesota in 2006.

Fargo is available to stream on Netflix.

Quantico

Starring Priyanka Chopra, this three-season series sees a group of young FBI recruits travel to the Quantico base in Virginia to receive training to become special agents. Unfortunately, though, some of them possess secrets unknown to others. Deadly secrets.

Quantico is available to rent on Prime Video.

Mindhunter

Based on the true crime book Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker, this popular Netflix series follows a pair of FBI agents (Holt McCallany and Hamilton’s Jonathan Groff) as they interview serial killers in an attempt to a) understand how their minds work and b) put the information to work for them in new murder cases.

Mindhunter is available to stream on Netflix.

Broadchurch

David Tennant and Olivia Colman star as two strongly-opposed detectives in Broadchurch. Despite their differences, though, they are thrown together when the corpse of an 11-year-old British boy, Danny Latimer, is found bloodied and dirty on an idyllic Dorset beach. 

Broadchurch is available to stream on the ITV Hub.

Killing Eve

Based on the Villanelle novels by Luke Jennings, Killing Eve sees Sandra Oh take up the lead role of Eve Polastri, a jaded MI5 security officer whose desk job falls drastically short of her dreams of being a spy. Polastri is on the hunt for talented killer, Oksana “Villanelle” Astankova (Jodie Comer), who clings to the luxuries her violent job affords her. A mutual obsession slowly develops between the two women as a game of cat and mouse ensues.

Killing Eve is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

The Wire 

In the city of Baltimore, Detective James McNulty (Dominic West) and his team investigate crimes and try their best to solve the bridge that exists between the drug kingpins and the law enforcement agencies.

The Wire is available to stream on NOW.

The Sinner

This breathtaking anthology series sees Detective Harry Ambrose investigate various atrocious murder cases and do his best to analyse the reasons behind ordinary people committing heinous crimes.

The Sinner is available to stream on Netflix.

Line Of Duty 

An absolute gem from Jed Mercurio, this BBC drama deals with the murky schemings of AC-12 as DI Kate Fleming (Vicky McClure) and DS Steve Arnott (Martin Compston) dig up high-level police corruption, treachery and bloodshed at every turn.

Line Of Duty is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

The Outsider 

Cynthia Erivo, Ben Mendelsohn, and Jason Bateman star in this adaptation of Stephen King’s The Outsider, which sees a seasoned detective pick up a murder case after the mutilated corpse of a young boy is found covered in saliva and human bite marks. When an insidious supernatural force edges its way into the case, though, it forces him to question everything he believes in.

The Outsider is available to rent on Prime Video.

Life On Mars 

Is he mad, in a coma… or back in time? John Simm plays Sam Tyler, a troubled police detective who wakes up in 1973 after being hit by a car, where he’s forced to join forces with the foul-mouthed DCI Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister) so that he can a) stop a murder from happening in his own timeline, and b) figure out what the hell has happened to him.

Life On Mars is available to stream on Netflix and BBC iPlayer.

Blindspot 

The FBI finds a strange woman in a bag in Times Square. With absolutely no memory of her past and mysterious tattoos all over her body, our Jane Doe (Jaimie Alexander) embarks on a journey to determine her identity.

Blindspot is available to stream on NOW.

Unforgotten 

Detectives Cassie Stuart (Nicola Walker) and Sunil ‘Sunny’ Khan (Sanjeev Bhaskar) try to solve a series of cold cases involving long unsolved murders and historic disappearances.

Unforgotten is available to stream via BritBox.

Images: ITV/Netflix/BBC