Best tv shows like Murphy's Law
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Murphy's Law is a BBC television drama starring James Nesbitt as an undercover police officer, Tommy Murphy.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, rough, clever, realistic, suspenseful, detective, dark, crime drama, gloomy
Best tv shows and movies like Murphy's Law (2003):
Similar in 85%
East West 101 (2007)
Plot Summary:
Zane Malik and the Major Crime Squad investigate crime and murder in all quarters of multicultural Sydney.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 638
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: Australia
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, serious, realistic, bleak, gloomy, detective
Similar in 80%
Zen (2011)
Plot Summary:
Zen is a British television mini series produced by Left Bank Pictures for the BBC, co-produced with WGBH Boston for its Masterpiece anthology series, Mediaset and ZDF. It stars Rufus Sewell and Caterina Murino and is based on the Aurelio Zen detective novels by Michael Dibdin. The series was filmed on location in Italy, but the dialogue is in English. The series, which comprises three 90-minute films, was broadcast in the United Kingdom on Sunday evenings from 2 January 2011 on BBC One. The three films were based on the books Vendetta, Cabal and Ratking.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK, Italy, Germany
Duration: 270 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, sexy, detective, serious, suspenseful, dark, crime drama, clever, realistic, stylized
Similar in 83%
The Eagle (2004)
Plot Summary:
The Eagle: A Crime Odyssey is a Danish police procedural television series produced by Danmarks Radio, created and written by Peter Thorsboe and Mai Brostrøm. The series debuted on 10 October 2004 in Denmark. It won an International Emmy Award from the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for best non-American television drama series in 2005. There were three seasons; the second season premiered in Denmark on 9 October 2005 and the third on 8 October 2006. The last episode originally aired in Denmark on 26 November 2006. The series was filmed on location in various parts of northern Europe, from Berlin and Copenhagen to Oslo and other locations including Iceland. The series has enjoyed particular success in Australia, where it airs on SBS and is available on DVD with English subtitles.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: Denmark
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, detective, noir
Similar in 83%
The Bill (1984)
Plot Summary:
The Bill is a police procedural television series that was broadcast on the ITV network from 16 October 1984 until 31 August 2010. The programme originated from a one-off drama, entitled Woodentop, which was broadcast in August 1983. In its final year on air, The Bill was broadcast once a week, usually on Tuesdays or Thursdays, in a one-hour format. The programme focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work. At the time of the series' conclusion, The Bill was the longest-running police procedural television series in the United Kingdom, and was among the longest-running of any British television series. The series was produced by Thames Television. The series name originated from "Old Bill", a slang term for the police. This was also Geoff McQueen's original title idea for the series, before he eventually decided on "The Bill". Although highly acclaimed amongst fans and critics alike, the series attracted controversy on several occasions. An episode broadcast in 2008 was criticised for featuring fictional treatment for multiple sclerosis, and another episode in the same year resulted in litigation, submitted by MP George Galloway for defamation. The series has also faced more general criticism, concerning the levels of violence it portrays, particularly prior to 2009, when it occupied a pre-watershed slot. During its time on air, The Bill won several awards, including BAFTAs, a Writers' Guild of Great Britain award and the title of "best drama" at the Inside Soap Awards in 2009, the latter being the series' fourth consecutive win. Throughout its twenty-seven-year run, the programme was always broadcast on the main ITV network. In later years, episodes of the show were repeated on ITV3 on their week of broadcast. The series has also been repeated on other digital stations, including UKTV Gold, Alibi, Watch and UKTV G2. In March 2010, executives at ITV announced that the network did not intend to recommission The Bill, and that filming on the series would cease on 14 June 2010. The last ever episode of the series was aired on 31 August 2010.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: captivating, serious, sincere, detective, crime drama, realistic
Similar in 75%
Falcón (2012)
Plot Summary:
Falcón is a brilliant detective whose personal and professional life is compromised by dark secrets from the past.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 794
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK
Duration:
Plot tags: tense, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, detective, atmospheric, gloomy, hardboiled detective, detective series
Similar in 83%
Jo (2013)
Plot Summary:
Jo is an English-language French police procedural television series created by Canadian/USA screenwriter René Balcer of Law & Order fame with French writing team Franck Ollivier & Malina Detcheva, known for the mini-series Lost Signs. It is co-produced by the French Atlantique Productions and the Belgian Stromboli Pictures companies in association with broadcast partners TF1, RTBF, Sat.1, ORF and RTS.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: France, UK
Duration:
Plot tags: serious, rough, realistic, suspenseful, detective
Similar in 81%
A Touch of Frost (1992)
Plot Summary:
A Touch of Frost is a television detective series produced by Yorkshire Television for ITV from 1992 until 2010, initially based on the Frost novels by R.D. Wingfield. Writing credit for the three episodes in the first 1992 series went to Richard Harris, with screenplays credited to Wingfield. The series stars David Jason as Detective Inspector William Edward "Jack" Frost, an experienced and dedicated detective who frequently clashes with his superiors. In his cases, Frost is assisted by a variety of different detective sergeants, with each bringing a different slant to the particular case. Comic relief is provided by Frost's interactions with the bureaucratically minded Superintendent Norman Mullett, played by Bruce Alexander. A number of young actors had their major debut as supporting cast in the show, including Matt Bardock, Ben Daniels, Neil Stuke, Nathaniel Parker, Mark Letheren, Colin Buchanan, Jason Maza, Damian Lewis and Marc Warren.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: detective, crime drama, sincere, clever, serious, realistic, suspenseful, witty
Similar in 90%
Law & Order: UK (2009)
Plot Summary:
Adapted from the hit US series, Law & Order: UK follows a team of police detectives and prosecutors representing the public interest in the criminal justice system.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 46 min
Plot tags: serious, tense, rough, bleak, suspenseful, crime drama, detective, clever, realistic
Similar in 88%
Lewis (2006)
Plot Summary:
Inspector Robert Lewis and Sergeant James Hathaway solve the tough cases that the learned inhabitants of Oxford throw at them.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: clever, realistic, detective, serious, crime drama, suspenseful, atmospheric
Similar in 88%
The Last Detective (2003)
Plot Summary:
The Last Detective is an ITV drama starring Peter Davison as Dangerous Davies. The first series aired in 2003 with three more seasons succeeding this. The first consisted of a pilot and three episodes, the second and the third series both consisted of four normal episodes and the fourth series increased the run to five episodes and the duration of each individual episode to 90 minutes as opposed to the previous 70-minute format. As of 2007 this series had 17 episodes in total.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: detective, clever, realistic, suspenseful, dark, crime drama, semi serious
Similar in 79%
Waking the Dead (2000)
Plot Summary:
Waking the Dead is a British television police procedural crime drama series produced by the BBC featuring a fictional Cold Case unit composed of CID police officers, a psychological profiler and a forensic scientist. A pilot episode aired in September 2000, and there have been a total of nine series since. Each story is split into two hour-long episodes, shown on consecutive nights on BBC One. A third series episode won an International Emmy Award in 2004. The programme was also shown on BBC America in the United States, though these screenings are edited to allow for advertising breaks, as well as UKTV in Australia and New Zealand and ABC1 in Australia. The show aired its final episode on 11 April 2011. A spin-off from the series, titled The Body Farm, revolving around forensic scientist Eve Lockhart, was announced by the BBC in January 2011 and ran for just one series.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, realistic, detective, crime drama, rough, serious, gloomy
Similar in 83%
Rebus (2000)
Plot Summary:
Rebus is the title of the detective drama TV series based on the Inspector Rebus novels by the Scottish author Ian Rankin set in and around Edinburgh. The series was produced by STV Productions for the ITV network. Four seasons have been aired; series 1 starred John Hannah and was made for STV by his own production company, Clerkenwell Films. A new cast featuring Ken Stott as DI John Rebus was introduced for the second and subsequent series.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, suspenseful, tense, realistic, crime drama, detective, suspense, clever
Similar in 87%
Taggart (1983)
Plot Summary:
Taggart is a Scottish detective television programme, created by Glenn Chandler, who has written many of the episodes, and made by STV Productions for the ITV network. The series revolves around a group of detectives initially in the Maryhill CID of Strathclyde Police, though various storylines have happened in other parts of the Greater Glasgow area, and as of the most recent series the team have operated out of the fictional John Street police station across the street from the City Chambers. It is one of the UK's longest-running dramas and is the longest-running police drama after the cancellation of The Bill. The show's 100th story aired on Christmas Eve 2009 on the ITV network. In May 2011, it was reported that the ITV network had decided to axe Taggart from the network after 28 years. The series may continue to be screened in Scotland on the STV network and on overseas broadcasters.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: detective, crime drama, tense, rough, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 86%
Inspector George Gently (2007)
Plot Summary:
Crime drama set in the 1960s about an old-school detective trying to come to terms with a time when the lines between the police and criminals have become blurred.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK, Ireland
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: detective, serious, suspenseful, crime drama, clever, realistic, dark, period drama
Similar in 79%
Thorne: Scaredycat (2010)
Plot Summary:
D.I. Tom Thorne's latest case puts him on the hunt for not one, but two serial killers, who seem to be working together, yet killing separately.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, detective, crime drama, gloomy
Similar in 82%
Moses Jones (2009)
Plot Summary:
Police investigate a mutilated body found in the Thames which appears to be the product of a witchcraft killing.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 234
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: rough, bleak, serious, suspenseful, tense, realistic
Similar in 89%
Scott & Bailey (2011)
Plot Summary:
D.C. Rachel Bailey and D.C. Janet Scott have a robust and engaging friendship which enables them to draw upon each other’s strengths and investigate murders for the Manchester Metropolitan Police.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, suspenseful, realistic, detective, crime drama
Similar in 89%
Vera (2011)
Plot Summary:
A sharp detective with a messy life, DCI Vera Stanhope patrols her “patch” of northeast England, pursuing the truth in cases of murder, kidnapping, and blackmail. Vera is obsessive about her work and faces the world with caustic wit, guile and courage.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, detective, crime drama, captivating, costume drama, hardboiled detective, suspenseful, stylized, tense
Similar in 88%
Unforgotten (2015)
Plot Summary:
'Unforgotten' follows modern police team DCI Cassie Stuart and DI Sunny Khan, who gradually unravel long-forgotten secrets which have a dramatic impact on their investigation and the four potential suspects. The slow revelation of the secrets will also affect the personal lives of both Sunny and Cassie.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 29000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: detective, serious, realistic, crime drama, tense, suspenseful, clever, captivating, disturbing, atmospheric
Similar in 85%
Murder in Suburbia (2004)
Plot Summary:
Murder in Suburbia was a British detective drama that ran for two series in 2004 and 2005.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, bleak, rough, detective, tense, crime drama, captivating, suspense, mind bending, serious
Similar in 88%
Trial & Retribution (1997)
Plot Summary:
Trial & Retribution is a feature-length ITV police procedural television drama series that began in 1997. It was devised and written by Lynda La Plante as a follow-on from her successful television series Prime Suspect. Each episode of the Trial & Retribution series is broadcast over two nights. The 2008 series 10 had 10 episodes, the longest run of the drama so far. The latest series was number 12 which aired in February 2009.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration:
Plot tags: detective, crime drama, tense, rough, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 85%
Thorne: Sleepyhead (2010)
Plot Summary:
Thorne Sleepyhead: follows DI Tom Thornes investigation into a mysterious serial killer. His first three victims ended up dead. His fourth was not so fortunate. Alison Willetts is unlucky to be alive. She has survived a stroke, deliberately induced by manipulation of pressure points on the head and neck. She can see, hear and feel, she is aware of everything going on around her, but she is unable to move or communicate. In leaving Alison alive, the police believe the killer's made his first mistake.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK, Australia, Canada, USA
Duration: 44 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, suspenseful, psychological, captivating, suspense, dark, detective, scary, realistic
Similar in 80%
Blue Murder (2003)
Plot Summary:
Blue Murder is a British crime drama television series based in Manchester. Shown on ITV from 2003 until 2009 when it was cancelled by the network, it starred Caroline Quentin as DCI Janine Lewis.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: detective, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, crime drama
Similar in 84%
Baretta (1975)
Plot Summary:
Baretta is an American detective television series which ran on ABC from 1975 to 1978. The show was a milder version of a successful 1973–74 ABC series, Toma, starring Tony Musante as chameleon-like, real-life New Jersey police officer David Toma. While popular, Toma received intense criticism at the time for its realistic and frequent depiction of police and criminal violence. When Musante left the series after a single season, the concept was retooled as Baretta, with Robert Blake in the title role.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: detective, retro, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 76%
River (2015)
Plot Summary:
John River, a brilliant police officer whose genius and fault-line is the fragility of his mind - a man haunted by the murder victims whose cases he must lay to rest.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 27000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, detective, crime drama, surprise ending, melancholic, atmospheric, enigmatic, tense, captivating
Similar in 82%
Above Suspicion (2009)
Plot Summary:
Above Suspicion is a British TV series based on Lynda La Plante's novels Above Suspicion, The Red Dahlia, Deadly Intent and Silent Scream. It stars Kelly Reilly and Ciarán Hinds, and features the career of La Plante's latest heroine DC Anna Travis. The first series, Above Suspicion, was shown on the fourth and fifth of January 2009; the second series, Above Suspicion: The Red Dahlia, was shown on the fourth, fifth and sixth of January 2010. The third series, Above Suspicion: Deadly Intent, was shown on the third, fourth and fifth of January 2011. The fourth series, Above Suspicion – Silent Scream was shown on the ninth, sixteenth and twenty-third of January 2012; in a break from the previous broadcasts, which were broadcast on consecutive days, this latest tale was serialised weekly. ITV cancelled Above Suspicion on May 28, 2012.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 46 min
Plot tags: detective, realistic, suspenseful, tense, serious, crime drama, dark
Similar in 83%
The Interceptor (2015)
Plot Summary:
A gripping eight-part series about a state-of-the-art law enforcement team whose unswerving mission is to hunt down some of Britain’s most dangerous criminals. The Interceptor delves into the adventures of a dedicated surveillance team known as the UNIT. Keeping their quarries under ultra-tight surveillance, they take us into the real world inhabited by the criminals of today. And it’s easy to recognize because it’s the same world the rest of us inhabit.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: rough, realistic, suspenseful, tense, serious
Similar in 79%
Identity (2010)
Plot Summary:
Identity is a British police procedural drama television series starring Aidan Gillen and Keeley Hawes, airing in the UK during July–August 2010. Concerning identity theft, the series was created and written by Ed Whitmore, a writer most noted for his work on the BBC's Waking The Dead and the acclaimed ITV mini-series He Kills Coppers. The remake rights have been sold to the ABC Network in America who are developing their own version of the show. ITV confirmed that the show had been cancelled on 19 October 2010, after a single series.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 717
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: tense, psychological, serious, realistic, captivating, detective, crime drama, suspenseful, stylized, gloomy
Similar in 80%
The Body Farm (2011)
Plot Summary:
Dr Eve Lockhart is one of Britain's leading forensic pathologists and runs a state-of-the-art forensic research facility called The Body Farm with her business partner Mike Phillips. Theirs is the only facility in the country using real human body-donors to examine the complex and fascinating journey the body goes through as it decays and returns to the earth.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 842
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK
Duration:
Plot tags: serious, realistic, tense, captivating, detective, psychological, rough, suspenseful
Similar in 79%
Hinterland (2013)
Plot Summary:
Tom Mathias comes to Aberystwyth having abandoned his life in London. He's a brilliant but troubled man. Despite his faults he is an excellent detective, who knows that the key to solving the crime lies not in where you look for truth, but how you look. From the windswept sand dunes of the coastline to the badlands of the hinterland, Y Gwyll is a series of four two-hour stories that are original and local, yet timeless and universal.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, detective, serious, tense, bleak, crime drama, dark, suspense, noir, grindhouse