It's one of the most crowded genres on TV, so picking the all-time top crime dramas was no easy task. Acclaimed American imports including Dexter, Mare of Easttown and Blue Bloods failed to make our cut, along with network stalwarts such as Law & Order and CSI. So did homegrown hits such as Vera, Shetland, Silent Witness, Midsomer Murders, The Fall and Death in Paradise.
We've judged them purely as crime dramas, not as dramas full-stop. The Wire, for example, is probably a better series overall than Inspector Morse but as a crime drama alone, Morse is superior. Cosy crime such as Midsomer Murders and Death in Paradise missed out on the basis of quality alone. We were looking for shows that grip us, thrill us and exercise our brain cells. Shows that bring to life the battle between cops and criminals.
We discounted family sagas with a crime element (apologies, Blue Bloods and The Sopranos) and shows with a comedy twist (excuse us, Fargo and Only Murders in the Building). We also prioritised shows that sustain their high standard. The Fall went downhill after its debut run. True Detective aired one truly great series, one pretty good one and two turkeys. Sorry, officer, not good enough.
Our ultimate selection spans from US police procedurals to Euro detective dramas, from panoramic thrillers to period whodunits. Unleash your inner sleuth with our ranked selection of the crème de la crime...
The BBC's latest bobbies-on-the-beat drama gains a fresh perspective by following rookie "peelers" on patrol in post-Troubles Belfast. Our heroes must learn fast on the dangerous frontline, while navigating public hostility and sectarian feuds. Created by two former Panorama journalists, both Belfast natives, it's immersive, authentic and thrillingly tense, with black humour provided by the tight workplace relationships formed under pressure. After two pulsating series and with at least two more to come, those blue lights will be flashing for some time to come. Read our Blue Lights, series two review
Watch it on: BBC iPlayer
Forget The Wire. This was the show that made a star out of Idris Elba. Written by novelist Neil Cross, the psychological thriller follows DCI John Luther as he investigates grisly crimes for the Met's Serious & Serial unit. Obsessive, unconventional and unafraid to be violent himself, our troubled hero is tormented by the darkness of his cases, gruffly swaggering around gritty urban London in his trademark grey coat. His twisted relationship with psychopathic multiple murderer Alice Morgan (Ruth Wilson) is a highlight. So is his bond with protégé DS Justin Ripley (Warren Brown). Over-stylised at times but elevated by Elba's powerhouse performance.
Watch it on: BBC iPlayer
We've had strong female detective duos since - Scott & Bailey, Rizzoli & Isles, True Detective's Danvers and Navarro - but these were the original and best. Hard-drinking career woman Christine Cagney (Sharon Gless) and working mother Mary Beth Lacey (Tyne Daly) were chalk-and-cheese but as an NYPD pairing, they were unbeatable. Essentially a buddy cop drama with a feminist twist, the CBS series combined gritty procedural plots with a refreshing portrayal of female friendship. Colleagues at their Manhattan precinct were vividly drawn. Hair was big, sweaters were cowl-necked and badges were flashed. Every year during its run, one of the two leads won the Emmy for Best Actress.
Watch it on: Amazon Prime Video
Perhaps the boldest drama on our list, this utterly unique series is well worth seeking out. It follows a Tokyo detective (Takehiro Hira) who travels to London in search of his wayward brother, who'd fallen into a life of crime and was assumed dead. As a Yakuza gang war erupts back home, he teams up with a Met detective (Kelly Macdonald) and a lippy rent boy (scene-stealer Will Sharpe) to form an unlikely investigative trio. Black-and-white segments, balletic action and a magical dance scene make it truly unforgettable. A confident calling card from writer Joe Barton, who would go on to create The Lazarus Project and upcoming spy thriller Black Doves. Read our Giri/Haji review
Writer David Renwick's long-running hit wasn't a "whodunit" but a "howdunit". Magician's consultant Creek (Alan Davies) uses his knowledge of illusions to solve seemingly impossible locked room-style mysteries. With his unruly curls, duffel coat and windmill residence, Creek was a textbook eccentric hero. Sparks flew in his relationship with sidekick Maddy Magellan (Caroline Quentin). She was later replaced by Julia Sawalha, Sheridan Smith and Sarah Alexander, none of whom were quite up to Quentin's standard, but the puzzle box cases remained just as addictive. Its devoted cult following haven't given up hope of a revival. Over to you, Messrs Renwick and Davies. Read our Jonathan Creek review
Watch it on: BBC iPlayer or ITVX
The show that invented subtitled Scandi crime on BBC Four. Theatre veteran Krister Henriksson was morosely magnificent as novelist Henning Mankell's world-weary, opera-loving Swedish police inspector. As he doggedly solves murders on the mean streets of Ystad, we get superior, slow-burning whodunits with an existential edge. The English language remake starring Kenneth Branagh as the hangdog detective was more cinematic, thanks to a much bigger budget, but lacked the bleak brilliance of the original.
Watch it on: Apple TV or ITVX
One of the most underrated dramas currently on-air. If Unforgotten was American or Nordic, it would be critically fawned over. A Met squad led by DCI Cassie Stuart (Nicola Walker) and DI Sunny Khan (Sanjeev Bhaskar) solve cold cases. As they delve into each victim's past, a guest cast of seemingly unconnected prime suspects emerges, a beguiling murder-mystery unfolds and the emotional ripples of crime are powerfully explored. Walker handed in her warrant card after four superb series but her replacement, Sinéad Keenan as DCI Jessica James, looks a worthy successor. Read our Unforgotten review
Watch it on: ITVX or Netflix
Experience and wisdom win the day in this silver-haired police procedural. It follows the work of the Met's fictional Unsolved Crime & Open Case Squad, where a senior detective oversees the work of three retired officers. Their bodies might be creaking and their methods are old-fashioned but they get results. The original cast - with Amanda Redman leading a dream team of Dennis Waterman, James Bolam and Alun Armstrong - was unbeatable. Warm-hearted, wryly comic and deceptively clever, it ran for 12 series and became one of the BBC's most reliable ratings-grabbers. And yes, Waterman does sing the theme tune. Read our New Tricks review
Watch it on: BBC iPlayer or UKTV Play
"You're an overweight, over-the-hill, nicotine-stained, borderline alcoholic homophobe." "You make that sound like a bad thing." The time-travelling procedural worked as both a nostalgic period piece and as a compelling crime drama in its own right. Policeman John Simm woke from a car crash in 2006 to find he'd somehow been whisked back to 1973 and teamed up with maverick DCI Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister). A paean to cop shows of the past, its fish-out-of-water theme, over-arching mystery and decidedly unreconstructed scripts made an irresistible combo. Eighties-set sequel Ashes to Ashes saw "the Gene Genie" form a double act with Keeley Hawes. Fire up the Cortina/Quattro (*delete according to decade).
Watch it on: BBC iPlayer or UKTV Play
Detective duos don't come much more mismatched than Saga Norén (Sofia Helin) and Martin Rohde (Kim Bodnia). When a dismembered human corpse was found at the precise mid-point of the Øresund Bridge which connects Malmö and Copenhagen, an autistic female Swedish homicide detective and her male Danish counterpart were assigned to solve the case together. The pair's initial hostility soon gave way to close friendship as their investigation led them into dangerous territory. Such a neat premise that it was remade in several territories, including Anglo-French version The Tunnel. Read our The Bridge review
Watch it on: Amazon Prime Video
Long-running series following uniformed constables are a TV tradition going back 70 years - Dixon of Dock Green spawned Z-Cars, which in turn gave way to Juliet Bravo - but many have dated badly. The exception is this gritty serial drama set at Sun Hill Station, which went on to become Britain's longest-running police procedural. Shot on location with hand-held cameras for an immersive documentary feel, it was tightly scripted and strongly performed. Indelible characters like DC Jim Carver, Sgt June Ackland, DC Tosh Lines and DCI Frank Burnside became as familiar as old friends. Sierra Oscar Two receiving.
Watch it on: UKTV Play
Thou shalt not murder - and underestimate sweet old ladies at your peril. Those were the morals of Agatha Christie's beloved novels about the shrewd spinster sleuth who learnt everything about human nature from observing the goings-on in her home village of St Mary Mead. The TV adaptation ran on and off for almost three decades. Later stars Geraldine McEwan and Julia McKenzie have their fans but for us, the definitive performance was Joan Hickson's, bird-like and watchful during the Eighties. Surely it's time for a reboot soon?
Watch it on: ITVX, Alibi or UKTV Play
Another criminally underrated gem. Writer Anthony Horowitz's period detective drama saw Michael Kitchen give a masterfully subtle performance as methodical hero DCSI Christopher Foyle - a Sussex sleuth tasked with catching criminals capitalising on the chaos caused by the Second World War. Profiteering, corruption, military malpractice and murder are Foyle's beat. He tenaciously pursues justice, assisted by his driver Sam Stewart (Honeysuckle Weeks). The pair quietly became one of TV's best duos. Handsome production design and attention to historical detail only enhanced its charms. Read our Foyle's War review
Watch it on: Amazon Prime Video
The scene when 11-year-old Danny Latimer's murderer was revealed was perhaps one of British TV's last watercooler moments. The stellar duo of DI Alec Hardy (David Tennant) and DS Ellie Miller (Olivia Colman) were thrust together in a Dorset coastal community and forced to put their differences aside when a local boy was found dead at the bottom of a cliff. Writer Chris Chibnall's creation was both a Nordic noir-tinged whodunit and a devastating portrayal of collective grief. Two follow-up series didn't hit the same heights but for a while back there, Broadchurch bordered on a national obsession. Read our Broadchurch review
Watch it on: ITVX
The Nordic noir wave of the Noughties somewhat overshadowed this fine French thriller, which is a subtitled crime classic to rank alongside anything Scandinavian. Titled Engrenages ("gears") in its native country, the multi-layered ensemble piece is an unforgiving portrait of the Parisian police and justice system. Gritty murder cases and murky corruption are mixed with political intrigue and gallows humour in a heady brew, brought to pulsating life by a superb ensemble cast. It was rightly crowned Best Drama series at the 2015 Emmys. Read our Spiral review
Watch it on: ITVX
Oft caricatured but never bettered. When The Sweeney kicked down the doors, it upended an entire genre. Masterminded by Ian Kennedy Martin, brother of Z-Cars co-creator Troy, it made his sibling's series look staid by comparison. Following the Met's Flying Squad, it was shot on location with 16mm film for a cinematic look. DI Jack Regan (John Thaw) and DS George Carter (Dennis Waterman) happily bent the law to bring down hardened criminals. Full of punch-ups and car chases, it was pacy, un-PC and viscerally thrilling.
Watch it on: ITVX
Let's be careful out there. The landmark NBC drama, created by Steven Bochco and Michael Kozoll, took the ensemble cast and intertwined serial storylines from soap opera, fused them with a police procedural, and came up with one of the most influential shows of all time. Each episode followed a day shift for the blue-uniformed officers at Hill Street precinct in an unnamed US city. Jerky camerawork gave it a naturalistic street-level feel, real world issues were tackled and police jargon littered the script. Groundbreaking and game-changing.
Watch it on: channel4.com
Thank goodness Bing Crosby turned down the role. It's impossible to imagine anyone but Peter Falk as eccentric genius Lt Frank Columbo. With his trademark cigar, crumpled raincoat and faux-casual catchphrase of "Just one more thing", Columbo is a timeless classic. These inverted mysteries were termed a "howcatchem" rather than a whodunit. Murderers underestimated the seemingly bumbling detective and walked right into his traps. It came with top-tier credentials - inspired by Dostoevsky and GK Chesterton, with episodes written by Steven Bochco, and directed by Steven Spielberg and Jonathan Demme - but wore them lightly, and simply entertained.
Watch it on: Apple TV
It only fails to make our top 10 because it's not purely a crime drama, rather a panoramic portrait of a decaying city and the entire US justice system. Each series revolved around a different part of Baltimore society - the drug trade, local government, the education system, the media, the unsexy-sounding port authority - but it always came back to policing. Detectives like Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West) and Bunk Moreland (Wendell Pierce) were among this Dickensian epic's most memorable characters. With an authenticity that verged on documentary-like, The Wire is a towering achievement which has lost none of its potency two decades on. Read our The Wire review
Watch it on: Amazon Prime Video, Now TV or Apple TV
The definitive embodiment of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's consulting detective was Jeremy Brett's portrayal in the lovingly produced Granada series. Brett set his heart on becoming "the best Sherlock Holmes the world has ever seen" and to our mind, he managed it. His Holmes was eccentric and electrifying, gleefully applying his genius to dark deeds in late Victorian London. There have been flashier updates since - the BBC's Sherlock and CBS reboot Elementary are both brilliant in their own ways - but for full authenticity and sheer Sherlockness, you can't beat Brett.
Watch it on: ITVX
The drama which blurred the lines between cops and robbers like never before. Based on the real-life Rampart Division corruption scandal, creator Shawn Ryan's street-smart, morally ambiguous neo-noir followed rogue LAPD officer Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis), leader of an elite unit of anti-gang detectives. Over seven seasons, the "Strike Team" routinely broke the law - not just to keep the peace but to line their own pockets. It played out like a Shakespearean tragedy as Mackey got in way over his head, went to increasingly extreme lengths and was eventually caught.
Watch it on: UKTV Play, Apple TV or Amazon Prime Video
The Nordic noir craze peaked with this superlative Danish drama. Titled Forbrydelsen ("the crime") in its native country, it became talking point TV and briefly made us obsessed with Faroese knitwear. Each episode was a snapshot of 24 hours in the same murder case, as lone wolf Copenhagen detective Sarah Lund (Sofie Gråbøl) investigated the murder of teenager Nanna Birk Larsen. Two more series followed, with Lund growing into a classic TV heroine. It won Baftas and Emmys, opening the BBC Four door for Scandi dramas of all stripes. The Bridge and Borgen followed in its muddy-booted footsteps. Tak! Read our The Killing review
Watch it on: channel4.com
Anti-corruption predecessor Between the Lines narrowly missed out on our selection but it paved the way for writer Jed Mercurio's bent copper blockbuster. This addictive thriller followed the waistcoat-clad work of professional standards unit AC-12 as they pursued a different dodgy officer each series - some of them scarily close to home. Across six fiendishly plotted series, it built into a serpentine conspiracy thriller about ties between law enforcement and organised crime, becoming known for its armed ambushes and extended interrogation scenes. It grew from a cult hit on BBC Two to a ratings record-breaker on BBC One. Will it return? Mother of God, we hope so. Read our Line of Duty review
Watch it on: BBC iPlayer
A western epic, relocated to present-day Halifax. Over three series - broadcast across nine years, enabling the pivotal figure of young Ryan to grow up - writer Sally Wainwright's indelible characters and vividly realised Calder Valley community seared their way into the national imagination. Battle-scarred lioness Sgt Catherine Cawood (a towering turn from Sarah Lancashire) pursues her nemesis, local psycho Tommy Lee Royce (James Norton), in and out of prison, up hill and down dale. Having warmed up her cop drama muscles with Scott & Bailey, Wainwright constructed a masterful thriller, full of electric confrontations, quiet heartbreak and delicious dialogue. Read our Happy Valley review
Watch it on: BBC iPlayer
Before broadening his scope for The Wire, screenwriter David Simon created one of the all-time great police procedurals, based on stint as a crime reporter for the Baltimore Sun. Debunking TV cop stereotypes, the relentlessly realistic drama follows flawed inner-city detectives as they investigate violent crimes - but not always solving them, because that's how life works. We see up close how officers grow hardened by the horrors they witness. The late Andre Braugher emerged as the breakout star for his portrayal of master interrogator Detective Frank Pembleton, later riffing on the character in cop comedy Brooklyn 99.
Watch it on: YouTube or DVD
If Cagney and Lacey blazed the trail for female TV detectives, Lynda LaPlante's masterpiece was Britain's answer, taking a sledgehammer to perceptions of women in the force. Helen Mirren was hard-living, tough-talking and unapologetically feminist as ambitious DCI Jane Tennison, investigating bleak crimes while fighting against institutionalised sexism in the Met. Across seven series, Tennison's inner demons would overwhelm her, but never at the expense of the riveting whodunits. Mirren's performance was so utterly convincing, it sometimes gets taken for granted exactly how great it was.
Watch it on: ITVX
It's testament to the quality and longevity of David Suchet's portrayal that he's become almost inseparable from Christie's dandyish Belgian sleuth in the public consciousness. Recommended for the role by the author's family, method actor Suchet studied the character, compiled his own in-depth dossier and "became him" in a way that nobody else has. LWT's lavish adaptations saw Hercule use his "little grey cells" to unmask killers in 70 feature-length episodes, covering every major Poirot story. Stars come and go in supporting roles but it's the Queen of Crime's precision plotting and Suchet's flawless performance which make it an all-timer.
Watch it on: ITVX
"I drink too much, I smoke too much, I gamble too much. I *am* too much." Writer Jimmy McGovern created an unforgettable anti-hero in criminal psychologist Dr Edward "Fitz" Fitzgerald (Robbie Coltrane), who helped Greater Manchester Police solve murders while splashing around in the moral murk himself. Coltrane, who won three consecutive Baftas for the role, was supported by an outstanding cast including Christopher Eccleston, Geraldine Somerville, Ricky Tomlinson and Barbara Flynn. Throw in Robert Carlyle, Samantha Morton, John Simm and Adrian Dunbar as criminals, and you have a drama of dizzying quality. A highlight were those adversarial interview scenes, where Fitz would press a suspect's buttons and drill down into their psyche until they snapped. It would be awful to be on the receiving end but sure was fun to watch.
Watch it on: ITVX
John Thaw played his second all-time great detective and the contrast with The Sweeney's Jack Regan couldn't be starker. If Regan was brawn, Morse was brain - and this ITV series was equally cerebral. The high-class adaptation of Colin Dexter's novels elevated the classic British whodunit to new heights, with DCI Morse and DS Lewis (Kevin Whately) becoming a contemporary Oxford version of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson.
A moody sleuth with trademark eccentricities - real ale, opera, cryptic crosswords, vintage Jags - has only become a TV cliché because Morse blazed a trail so superbly. It sparked not one but two spin-offs, sequel Lewis and prequel Endeavour. Both were terrific but also made one yearn for the original. To watch an episode of Morse is like sinking into a favourite armchair with a full glass and a crackling fire. Goodbye, sir.
