For absorbing television, you can’t go wrong with a quality crime drama. From epic heists to unsolved murders, these multi-layered shows are packed with plot twists to keep you on the edge of the sofa until the final episode. Here are our top picks.
Frauds
Suranne Jones and Jodie Whittaker star as ex-cons reunited for one last job in this fun crime caper. Bert (Jones) has been released early from prison in Spain on compassionate grounds as she faces a terminal cancer diagnosis. “Or so she claims – you can’t trust a word Bert says,” said Christopher Stevens in the Daily Mail. Meanwhile, Sam (Whittaker), Bert’s “former accomplice and possibly an ex-lover”, has been “going straight”, living a quiet life in a rural farmhouse. “But Bert has bigger ambitions.” By the end of the first episode of “Frauds”, she’s revealed her master plan: to pull off one last heist. “Immersed in their characters up to the hilt”, the pair are “entirely believable” – and make for a compelling watch. Can they get away with pinching a priceless Dali painting? “I can’t wait to find out.”
ITV
Rebus
Based on Ian Rankin’s bestselling books, “Rebus” follows the titular detective as he investigates crime in Edinburgh’s murky underworld. What really makes the show stand out, said Rachel Cooke in The New Statesman, is its excellent Scottish script. “Pitch perfect”, it’s filled with “scathing” jokes about independence and the “English invaders who ride around on bicycles – ‘like they’re in Denmark’”. Richard Rankin (no relation) stars as a “reimagined” younger Rebus. A divorced alcoholic grappling with personal issues, he manages to combine the role’s “morning-after-the-night before skank with an ornery charm that is stealth sexy”. After the first few episodes, it’s clear the show is “shaping up to be a keeper”.
BBC iPlayer
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Task
Brad Ingelsby – the “indisputably great” screenwriter behind “Mare of Easttown” – has turned his hand to another gritty crime drama, said Ben Dowell in The Times. Set in the suburbs of Philadelphia, his latest show stars Mark Ruffalo as “grizzled” FBI detective (and former priest) Tom Brandis. He’s assigned to a new task force to track down the perpetrator behind a string of violent robberies, assisted “as per cop show convention” by a “team of misfits”. The show’s “doomy darkness” can feel “overwhelming” at times, but its “depth and texture” are “spellbinding”. It’s well worth a watch.
Sky
Get Millie Black
This police procedural is a “welcome departure from both the genre’s tired tropes and the drizzly British skies they usually unfold beneath”, said Emily Watkins in The i Paper. The action follows ex-Scotland Yard detective Millie-Jean Black (Tamara Lawrance) as she returns to her hometown of Kingston in Jamaica and begins work on a missing persons case. Written by Booker Prize-winning author Marlon James, the show’s voiceover acts as an “elegant bridge between its author’s literary pedigree and his new medium”. With its “stellar” lead performances and “overwhelmingly smart” script, it’s “about as far from the bog standard police procedural as Jamaica’s Kingston is from London”.
Channel 4
The Gold
Based on the true story of the Brink's-Mat gold heist at a security depot near Heathrow airport in 1983, the first series of this BBC drama is an "accomplished" piece of work, said Anita Singh in The Telegraph. Hugh Bonneville stars as Brian Boyce, the "dogged detective" leading the hunt for the missing gold who "personifies everything that was good and proper about old-fashioned British policing". The second series has a "bleaker, more desperate tone" but is still powered by skilful writing and "top-notch performances from everyone involved".
BBC iPlayer
Code of Silence
Rose Ayling-Ellis has "surpassed herself" in her first leading television role, said Charlotte O'Sullivan in The Independent. The deaf actor stars as Alison Brooks, a young woman working in a police canteen who is brought in to investigate a jewellery heist thanks to her "brilliant lip-reading skills". It's a "sexy, funny and edgy" crime thriller that reminds us a disabled female character can be "lustful, and lustworthy, without being treated as a stereotypical object of desire". Despite some "plot holes", it's a "truly groundbreaking" show and I predict that Ayling-Ellis "will, one day, win an Oscar".
ITV
Ballard
Amazon Prime's new spin-off of the hit series "Bosch" is "one of the best police procedurals on TV", said Aramide Tinubu in Variety. The action follows detective Renée Ballard (the "outstanding" Maggie Q). "Ousted" from her job, after "blowing the whistle on a popular cop", she is moved to the LAPD's underfunded cold-case unit. As the only full-time member of staff, she must try to solve "long-forgotten, decades-old homicides" with just a "motley crew of volunteers" to assist her. "Smartly acted, beautifully paced and genuinely engaging, 'Ballard' is a thrilling ride from start to finish."
Amazon
Adolescence
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
Dept. Q
Matthew Goode gives a "terrific lead performance" as Detective Carl Morck in "Department Q", a cold-case unit in Edinburgh working out of a "grungy" basement office, said The Hollywood Reporter. He's "adrift and unhappy" following a "botched investigation" in which he was shot and his partner was partly paralysed. It's not "hugely funny" like "Slow Horses", but the dynamics are "very amusing" and the "entire cast is pretty superb". In particular, DC Rose Dickson (Leah Byrne), "whose shock of unruly ginger hair suggests nothing so much as Strawberry Shortcake as a homicide detective", gives a "lively and intelligent" performance. Based on the book series by Danish writer Jussi Adler-Olsen, "Dept. Q" establishes a "rich world and a group of diverse voices with ample room for growth" – and there are still "nine more Adler-Olsen novels to adapt".
Netflix
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