Best British Crime Dramas

AC-12, a fictional anti-corruption unit, investigates police officers suspected of corruption within their own force. Six series build to one of British TV's most talked-about mysteries, with a seventh coming in 2027.

Sarah Lancashire won two BAFTAs as Sergeant Catherine Cawood in Sally Wainwright's West Yorkshire drama, built around a cat-and-mouse arc with her nemesis across three series and nine years.

Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar led the first four series investigating decades-old cold cases; Sinéad Keenan has since stepped in opposite Bhaskar, with a seventh series already confirmed.

Douglas Henshall's DI Jimmy Perez carried the first seven series before handing over to Ashley Jensen, investigating murders within the tight-knit island community of Scotland's Shetland Isles.

Brenda Blethyn played DCI Vera Stanhope in every one of the show's 14 series, investigating feature-length cases across the wild Northumberland coast until the show's complete run ended in 2025.

Siân Brooke, Martin McCann, Katherine Devlin, and Nathan Braniff play newly qualified PSNI officers navigating frontline policing in post-Troubles Belfast, in a series that won Best Drama at the 2025 BAFTAs.

Vicky McClure stars as a Metropolitan Police bomb disposal officer defusing a fresh explosives threat in each series, produced by Jed Mercurio's team, the creative force behind Line of Duty.