Guides
So You Think You've Seen It All?
Everyone's seen Vera and Broadchurch. This is for what comes after — four rounds of British mystery, each one a little further off the beaten path than the last.
Eleven shows across three levels, plus a final challenge. Some links may be affiliate links — see disclosure below.
Good shows that aren't obscure, but aren't the same titles everyone recommends.
An Ann Cleeves adaptation with Ben Aldridge as DI Matthew Venn — it only ran four episodes, which makes it surprisingly easy to have missed.
London mysteries with an unusual detective and a lovely setting — Adrian Scarborough's DI Max Arnold works Chelsea's glossiest streets from a modest houseboat.
A P.D. James adaptation starring Bertie Carvel as the enigmatic detective-poet Adam Dalgliesh, set in the early 1980s and adapted with real restraint.
Meera Syal as a Berkshire caterer with a knack for solving crimes — four feature-length episodes of warm, funny, gently cozy mystery that never got a second series.
Now we're getting beyond the most familiar recommendations.
A Metropolitan Police procedural based on Kate London's novels, written by an actual former Met murder-squad detective. Strong storytelling, nowhere near the recognition of Line of Duty.
Martin Clunes in a restrained, true-crime police procedural — a real change of pace from Doc Martin, as DCI Colin Sutton hunts a serial killer using nothing but painstaking, unglamorous police work.
Welsh crime drama set against the landscape of North Wales — from the same team behind Hinterland, with Sian Reese-Williams as a detective drawn into disappearances in Snowdonia.
A British-German detective pairing solving cases on the sun-drenched island of Mallorca — Elen Rhys and Julian Looman make an unlikely, very watchable odd couple.
This is where it gets genuinely difficult.
Ian Rankin's Edinburgh detective, played first by John Hannah and then by Ken Stott across four series — long before the newer Rebus adaptation, and easy to have missed entirely.
Amanda Burton as Metropolitan Police Commander Clare Blake, from Prime Suspect creator Lynda La Plante — five series of a tough, ambitious lead who rarely gets mentioned in the same breath as Jane Tennison.
Olivia Williams and Darren Boyd in two feature-length adaptations of Sophie Hannah's psychological crime novels — a short, sharp run that came and went with little fanfare.
Seen all eleven?
All right, you win. But only for now.
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