32 articles
Bloodlands (TV series)
Bloodlands is a BBC One Northern Ireland crime drama created by Chris Brandon, starring James Nesbitt as PSNI detective Tom Brannick hunting the assassin Goliath; two seasons, 2021 and 2022, produced by Hat Trick Mercurio Television.
Blue Lights (2023 TV series)
Blue Lights is a BBC One police drama created by Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson, following three PSNI probationers in Belfast from 27 March 2023. Produced by Two Cities Television and Gallagher Films, it won the 2025 BAFTA for Best Drama Series and ran four series.
Bodyguard (British TV series)
Bodyguard is a six-episode British political thriller broadcast on BBC One in 2018, written by Jed Mercurio, starring Richard Madden as a war veteran assigned to guard the Home Secretary.
Borderline (2024 TV series)
Borderline (2024) is an Irish-German crime drama, also titled Borderline – Grenzenlose Verbrechen, in which PSNI DCI Philip Boyd (Eoin Macken) and Garda DI Aoife Regan (Amy De Bhrún) solve cross-border murders in three two-part cases on the Irish border.
Bulletproof (TV series)
Bulletproof is a British action crime drama on Sky One (2018-2021) created by Noel Clarke, Nick Love, and Ashley Walters, starring Clarke and Walters as undercover NCA partners Bishop and Pike in London; three seasons, including the three-part South Africa-set finale.
Criminal: UK
Criminal: UK is the British branch of Netflix's 2019 Criminal interrogation anthology: three-plus-four episodes set entirely in a police interview suite, created by George Kay and Jim Field Smith, starring Katherine Kelly, Lee Ingleby, and guest suspects like David Tennant, canceled after two seasons.
Heartbeat (British TV series)
Heartbeat is a British ITV police period drama set in 1960s Yorkshire, based on Nicholas Rhea's Constable novels, running 18 series and 372 episodes from 1992 to 2010, filmed mainly in Goathland.
Hinterland (TV series)
Hinterland (Y Gwyll, 'the dusk') is a Welsh crime drama set in Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, starring Richard Harrington as DCI Tom Mathias. Shot back-to-back in Welsh and English for S4C and BBC, it ran three series (2013-2016) and founded Welsh noir.
Hope Street (TV series)
Hope Street is a BBC cosy police drama set in fictional Port Devine, Northern Ireland, filmed in Donaghadee, County Down. Created by Paul Marquess and Susanne Farrell, first aired 2021; five series to date, led by Amara Karan as DC Leila Hussain.
Law & Order: UK
Law & Order: UK is a British ITV1 crime drama (2009-2014), produced by Kudos, Wolf Films, and NBC Universal, adapting every episode from a US Law & Order teleplay for English courts, running 53 episodes across 8 series.
Life on Mars (British TV series)
Life on Mars: British BBC One police drama (2006–2007, 16 episodes) by Graham, Jordan, and Pharoah; John Simm's DI Sam Tyler wakes in 1973 after a car accident, under Philip Glenister's DCI Gene Hunt, with a coma-fantasy resolution, Emmy win, sequel Ashes to Ashes, and five remakes.
Line of Duty
Line of Duty: BBC police procedural created by Jed Mercurio, first aired 2012, 36 episodes over six series, following fictional anti-corruption unit AC-12; a seventh series is in post-production.
List of New Tricks episodes
The list of New Tricks episodes covers the BBC One crime comedy-drama about a squad of retired officers solving cold cases, which ran 106 episodes from 2004 to 2015.
New Tricks
New Tricks is a British BBC crime comedy-drama running from 2004 to 2015, following the Metropolitan Police's UCOS, a cold-case unit of retired detectives led by Sandra Pullman.
No Offence
No Offence is a British Channel 4 police comedy-drama created by Paul Abbott, set at a Manchester station led by DI Vivienne Deering (Joanna Scanlan). Three series, 2015–2018; RTS Best Drama Series winner, BAFTA-nominated.
Paranoid (TV series)
Paranoid is a 2016 British eight-part ITV/Netflix crime drama and conspiracy thriller written by Bill Gallagher, starring Indira Varma, Robert Glenister, and Lesley Sharp as detectives investigating a playground murder in fictional Marshwell, Cheshire.
Prime Suspect
Prime Suspect is a British ITV police procedural (1991-2006, seven series) created by Lynda La Plante, starring Helen Mirren as DCI Jane Tennison, modeled on real detective Jackie Malton, and a BAFTA- and Emmy-winning landmark in female-led crime drama.
Red Rock (TV series)
Red Rock: Irish crime drama soap (2015–2020) on TV3/Virgin Media One, created by Peter McKenna, set around a fictional Dublin Garda station and feuding Hennessy and Kiely families; €7m-a-year Element Pictures/Company Pictures production sold to BBC and Amazon Prime.
Ridley (TV series)
Ridley is a British ITV crime drama (2022–2024) starring Adrian Dunbar as retired DI Alex Ridley, brought back as a consultant by former protégée DI Carol Farman (Bronagh Waugh). Created by Vera writer Paul Matthew Thompson; two series, 12 episodes, set in Pennine Lancashire.
River (TV series)
River (2015) is a six-part BBC One crime drama created by Abi Morgan, starring Stellan Skarsgård as DI John River, a detective haunted by manifestations of the dead, with Nicola Walker, Adeel Akhtar, Lesley Manville, and Eddie Marsan; made by Kudos.
Scott & Bailey
Scott & Bailey is an ITV British crime drama (2011–2016, five series, 33 episodes) created by Sally Wainwright and Diane Taylor from an idea by Suranne Jones and Sally Lindsay, starring Jones and Lesley Sharp as Manchester detectives Rachel Bailey and Janet Scott.
Suspects (TV series)
Suspects: British improvised police procedural on Channel 5, 2014-2016, five seasons and 23 episodes; created by Paul Marquess, Darren Fairhurst, and Steve Hughes; cast improvise all dialogue from story outlines in documentary style; starred Fay Ripley, Damien Molony, Clare-Hope Ashitey.
The Bay (TV series)
The Bay (TV series) names two shows: Gregori J. Martin's American soap (2010–, 23 Daytime Emmy wins) and ITV's Morecambe-set crime drama (2019–, Tall Story Pictures, Daragh Carville).
The Bill
The Bill: British ITV police procedural (1984–2010) set at fictional Sun Hill station, created by Geoff McQueen from the 1983 play Woodentop; over 2,400 episodes, peak audience above 16 million.
The Mallorca Files
The Mallorca Files is a 2019 BBC/ZDF buddy-cop crime drama created by Dan Sefton, starring Elen Rhys and Julian Looman as British and German detectives on Mallorca; three seasons (2019–2024), Season 3 on Prime Video.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E., NBC spy-adventure series 1964-1968 created by Norman Felton and Sam Rolfe with Ian Fleming's input, starring Robert Vaughn as Napoleon Solo and David McCallum as Soviet agent Illya Kuryakin of U.N.C.L.E. versus THRUSH; 105 episodes, Girl from U.N.C.L.E. spinoff, 1983 TV movie, 2015 Guy Ritchie film.
The Responder
The Responder: BBC One British police crime drama (2022-2024) created by ex-Merseyside officer Tony Schumacher, starring Martin Freeman as burnt-out Liverpool night-shift response officer Chris Carson; two five-part series, International Emmy for Freeman, followed by Schumacher's The Cage.
The Sweeney
The Sweeney: British ITV police drama (1975-1978), created by Ian Kennedy Martin, starring John Thaw as Jack Regan and Dennis Waterman as George Carter of the Flying Squad; Euston Films 16mm production, two 1970s films and a 2012 remake.
Vigil (TV series)
Vigil (BBC One, 2021–) is a British police thriller by Tom Edge starring Suranne Jones and Rose Leslie; series 1 investigates a death aboard a Trident Vanguard-class submarine, later series cover RAF drones and an Arctic station, drawing over 13 million UK viewers and an International Emmy.
Waking the Dead (TV series)
Waking the Dead: BBC One British police procedural crime drama (2000–2011) created by Barbara Machin; 92 episodes, 9 series; Trevor Eve as DSU Peter Boyd leading a London cold-case unit; spin-off The Body Farm.