The best British crime dramas

Jenna Coleman stars in the 'wonderfully claustrophobic' The Jetty

(Image credit: Alamy / Album)

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The Game
Gangs of London
Sherwood
The Jetty
Adolescence
This City Is Ours
Get Millie Black
Out There
Virdee
Until I Kill You
After the Flood

By Irenie Forshaw, The Week UK, Adrienne Wyper, The Week UK

last updated 23 May 2025

There's something about watching detectives unravel a case that's both "engrossing and comforting", said Pat Saperstein on Variety. With their "top-flight production values" and "crackling casts", the best British crime dramas are a "bingeing delight". Here are some of our top picks to add to your watch list.

The Game

"Oh, I do enjoy a Channel 5 thriller," said Anita Singh in The Telegraph. The channel's latest "unpretentious" British crime drama stars Robson Green as a "slippery antiques repairer who may or may not be a serial killer out to murder his neighbours". Retired detective Huw Miller (Jason Watkins) becomes suspicious when Patrick Harbottle (Green) moves in across the street and "smoothly" begins to ingratiate himself with everyone. Following a night at the pub when Patrick utters the catchphrase used by the notorious Ripton Stalker to "taunt" police, Huw becomes convinced he has finally found the murderer. Packed with "twists and turns", it makes for a highly "entertaining" watch.
Channel 5

As long as you're not "squeamish", "Gangs of London" is a "pugilistic hoot", said Dan Jolin on Empire. The second season of the "intensely" violent show sticks to its tried-and-tested formula of dramatic plot twists and a "flagrant disregard for character survivability". Elliot Carter (Sope Dirisu) is now a "full-blooded gangster" enjoying his new-found power, but things go downhill fast when a batch of cocaine is spiked, leading to mass casualties across the city. Any ethical subtleties are "bulldozed" in the quest for "big, silly drama" – but we wouldn't have this "ridiculously action-focused" melodrama any other way.
Netflix

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James Graham's "searing" crime drama about a Nottinghamshire mining village reeling from two shock killings was widely hailed as a "modern classic" in 2022, said Rachael Sigee in The i Paper. It didn't need to return for a second instalment but Graham makes a "compelling case for its existence" with his "masterful" plotting of several new narrative strands. Picking up two decades after the events of the first season, the drama focuses on the murder of a young man, whose slaying triggers a gang turf war.
BBC iPlayer

This "electric" series stars Jenna Coleman as a Lancashire detective investigating an arson in her local town, said Vicky Jessop in London's The Standard. She soon finds the fire is connected to a missing person cold case from 17 years earlier, which leads her into a "sordid underworld of dark secrets". Delivering "death, danger and menace in spades", it's a "wonderfully claustrophobic" series that will keep you hooked right until the end.
BBC iPlayer

This four-part mini series, created by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham, is a "chilling examination of murder and toxic masculinity", said Variety. The action follows a family whose lives unravel when 13-year-old Jamie (Owen Cooper) is accused of murdering a girl at his school. The "dark and brilliantly written" British crime drama explores the rise of the "manosphere" and its disturbing impact on young people's lives. "Gutting, raw and stunningly acted", "Adolescence" is a "nightmarish" tale that's a gripping, and important, watch.
Netflix

Scouse accents and "authentic dialogue" are among the many "pleasures" of this excellent British crime drama about the "murky world of Liverpudlian drug dealers", said NME. As patriarch Ronnie Phelan (Sean Bean) considers retirement, his right-hand man Michael Kavanagh (James Nelson-Joyce) must decide whether to take the reins of the patriarch's successful cocaine-smuggling business. But when a shipment of drugs disappears, "no one is safe". "This City Is Ours" is a "dense, propulsive drama" and a "cheering" reminder that Britain still knows "how to make decent TV".
BBC iPlayer

Booker-prize-winning novelist Marlon James' first television drama is an "impressive piece of work", said Carol Midgley in The Times. The action follows Millie-Jean Black (Tamara Lawrance), a Scotland Yard detective who leaves the Met and returns to Jamaica to work in the missing persons department. Much like a novel, each episode is narrated by a different character, adding to the show's "freshness and originality", and there's more story packed into the "first 300 seconds" than some series manage in an entire episode.
Channel 4

Martin Clunes is "perfectly cast" in ITV's "very watchable" crime drama "Out There", said The Telegraph. He plays Nathan, a Welsh farmer whose vulnerable son Johnny is drawn into a county-lines drug-running operation.The first episode is "slow and steady", introducing us to various characters, including Eiry Thomas as a "determined local bobby", and Gerran Howell and Carly-Sophia Davies, who play the siblings responsible for "getting Johnny involved in this mess". But over the course of the series it "ramps up to great effect, turning into a thriller".
ITV

This "glossy" new BBC detective drama is set and filmed entirely in Bradford, said Radio Times. The action follows detective Virdee (Staz Nair) as he hunts down a killer who is targeting the city's Asian community, while struggling with his chaotic personal life. Crafted in a "meticulous manner", viewers are given an insight into each of Virdee's family members' inner worlds; it isn't easy to pack "all of that richness" into just six episodes, but the series' writer A.A. Dhand "pulls it off in spectacular style". There's "no wasted dialogue" or scenes crammed with too much information. Instead, "Virdee" delivers all the "action and twists you'd expect in a high-budget blockbuster".
BBC iPlayer

This "extraordinary portrait" of Delia Balmer is rare, fearless and "values viewers' intelligence", said The Guardian. The "relentlessly confrontational" drama is based on the true story of Balmer's experience surviving repeated physical and sexual assaults by her boyfriend, convicted serial killer, John Sweeney. Anna Maxwell Martin delivers "the best performance of her career" as the free-spirited, socially awkward Delia. Shaun Evans as Sweeney is equally compelling, giving an "altogether terrifying" portrayal of the killer. In some ways, "Until I Kill You" is a classic domestic violence drama, but the "magnificent treatment of a damnable, unending subject" ultimately illuminates the heartbreaking experience from a fresh angle.
ITVX

"The publicity made this one sound like a standard police procedural, with added water," said The Guardian, but it soon "gets really good". In the aftermath of a river bursting its banks, a murder mystery unfolds "sparked by the discovery of a man's body in a lift in an underground car park". At first presumed trapped by floodwater, the post mortem revealed that he died at least three days before that. Out to investigate is Jo (Sophie Rundle), a heavily pregnant police officer who "races against the clock to solve the murder case before her baby arrives", said Radio Times. "You'll want to stick around to find out how this messy business concludes."
ITVX

Adrienne Wyper has been a freelance sub-editor and writer for The Week's website and magazine since 2015. As a travel and lifestyle journalist, she has also written and edited for other titles including BBC Countryfile, British Travel Journal, Coast, Country Living, Country Walking, Good Housekeeping, The Independent, The Lady and Woman’s Own.