Best tv shows like The Last Detective
Last updated March 2024
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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
Best tv shows and movies like The Last Detective (2003):
Similar in 80%
Hetty Wainthropp Investigates (1996)
Plot Summary:
Hetty Wainthropp Investigates is a genteel British crime/comedy drama television programme that aired from 1996 to 1998 on BBC One. Patricia Routledge starred as the titular character, Derek Benfield as her patient husband Robert, Dominic Monaghan as their lodger Geoffrey Shawcross and John Graham Davies as DCI Adams. Later episodes include Suzanne Maddock as Janet Frazer, a feisty young auto mechanic who sells a car to Geoffrey; their relationship develops by the end of the series. In the United States, episodes have been featured on PBS's anthology programme Mystery!.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 75 min
Plot tags: detective, retro, crime drama, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 90%
McDonald & Dodds (2020)
Plot Summary:
Two detectives, DCI McDonald and DS Dodds, who seemingly have nothing in common, are thrown together and forge a rumbustious friendship and entertaining partnership in this two-part British detective drama miniseries set in modern-day Bath.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: tense, detective, intellectual, unusual plot structure, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing, contemplative
Similar in 86%
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 84%
The Black Tower (1985)
Plot Summary:
Frustrated with his career, Commander Dalgliesh is invited to Toynton Grange, a home for the disabled, by his old teacher, Father Baddeley, who is resident there. But unbeknown to Dalgliesh, something happening at the Grange is making the Father uneasy, and Dalgliesh quickly finds himself investigating a series of mysterious deaths.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 363
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: detective, atmospheric, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 89%
Lovejoy (1986)
Plot Summary:
The series concerns the adventures of the eponymous Lovejoy, played by Ian McShane, a likeable but roguish antiques dealer based in East Anglia. Within the trade, he has a reputation as a "divvie", a person with an almost supernatural powers for recognising exceptional items as well as distinguishing genuine antique from clever fakes or forgeries.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: detective, sitcom, exciting, clever, humorous, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, witty, semi serious
Similar in 79%
Private Eyes (2016)
Plot Summary:
Ex-pro hockey player Matt Shade irrevocably changes his life when he teams up with fierce P.I. Angie Everett to form an unlikely investigative powerhouse.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: Canada
Duration: 43 min
Plot tags: captivating, detective, semi serious, tense, exciting, suspense, detective series
Similar in 77%
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 80%
Dalziel and Pascoe (1996)
Plot Summary:
A British crime drama based on the "Dalziel and Pascoe" series of books by Reginald Hill, set in the fictional Yorkshire town of Wetherton. The unlikely duo of politically incorrect elephant-in-a-china-shop-copper Detective Superintendent Andrew Dalziel (pronounced Dee-ell) and his more sensitive and university educated sidekick Detective Sargent, later Detective Inspector, Peter Pascoe is always on hand to solve the classic murder mystery, while maintaining a down to earth wit and humour.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Mystery, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: serious, detective, crime drama, tense, realistic, witty, suspenseful
Similar in 88%
Campion (1989)
Plot Summary:
Campion is a television show made by the BBC, adapting the Albert Campion mystery novels written by Margery Allingham. Two series were made, in 1989 and 1990, starring Peter Davison as Campion, Brian Glover as his manservant Magersfontein Lugg and Andrew Burt as his policeman friend Stanislaus Oates. A total of eight novels were adapted, four in each series, each of which was originally broadcast as two separate hour-long episodes. Peter Davison sang the title music for the first series himself; in the second series, it was replaced with an instrumental version.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 975
Genere: Adventure, Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: detective, crime drama, humorous, realistic, suspenseful, semi serious, period drama
Similar in 76%
Jonathan Creek (1997)
Plot Summary:
Jonathan Creek follows the story of Madeline Magellan, an investigative journalist. Like most journalists, she sticks her nose in where it isn't wanted, but this is what makes her such a great journalist! While writing a piece about the death of a prominent artist, she happens across a man named Jonathan Creek. Jonathan makes a living inventing magical tricks for magician Adam Klaus, and has a brilliantly lateral mind.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: clever, detective, anthology, sitcom, crime drama, realistic, serious, suspenseful
Similar in 85%
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 78%
The Murder Room (2004)
Plot Summary:
The lease on the Dupayne Museum is almost up and under the terms of their father's will, all three of the Dupayne children must agree to continue or the museum is to close. Neville Dupayne is dead set against continuing the museum when the money could be used for a much better purpose. One of the museum's key attractions is the Murder Room, displaying information on a series of notorious murders from between the two World Wars. When Neville dies in a way reminiscent of one of the murders on display in the Murder Room, Commander Adam Dalgleish is asked to investigate. There are any number of suspects: his siblings, several museum employees who will lose their job, his secretary with whom he once had an affair and his daughter who felt he was an absentee father. A second murder reveals some of the activities of the upper classes and the solution lies in a long-ago wrong that someone is seeking to right.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 544
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, suspenseful, detective, tense, mind bending, realistic
Similar in 84%
What Remains (2013)
Plot Summary:
When the decomposed body of Melissa Young is found by a couple in their new flat, Detective Len Harper is determined to discover what happened to her and why nobody noticed she was missing.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 240 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, tense, suspenseful, detective, dark, crime drama, realistic
Similar in 86%
Rosemary & Thyme (2003)
Plot Summary:
Rosemary & Thyme is a British television mystery series starring Felicity Kendal and Pam Ferris as gardening detectives Rosemary Boxer and Laura Thyme. The show began on ITV in 2003. The third series ended in August 2007. The theme is murder mysteries in the setting of professional gardening jobs. It was created by Brian Eastman to entertain his wife, Christabel Albery, who is an avid gardener. The show was directed by Brian Farnham, Simon Langton, and Tom Clegg. Clive Exton, who helped create the show, contributed 10 of the 22 scripts.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 48 min
Plot tags: feel good, realistic, captivating, clever, detective, semi serious, crime drama, suspenseful
Similar in 90%
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 78%
The Inspector Lynley Mysteries (2001)
Plot Summary:
Inspector Lynley TV Series.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: detective, serious, realistic, suspenseful, crime drama, tense, captivating, disturbing, dark, sincere
Similar in 77%
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 77%
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 90%
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 89%
The Brokenwood Mysteries (2014)
Plot Summary:
In a seemingly quiet country town the newest resident, Detective Inspector Mike Shepherd, finds that murder lurks in even the most homely location.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: New Zealand
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: realistic, suspenseful, semi serious, detective, witty, tense, captivating, suspense, humorous, crime drama
Similar in 87%
New Tricks (2003)
Plot Summary:
New Tricks is a British comedy-drama that follows the work of the fictional Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad of the Metropolitan Police Service. Originally led by Detective Superintendent Sandra Pullman, it is made up of retired police officers who have been recruited to reinvestigate unsolved crimes.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: detective, crime drama, serious, realistic, tense, captivating, suspenseful
Similar in 75%
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 81%
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 79%
Aspe (2004)
Plot Summary:
In each episode of this Flemish whodunit based on the books of Pieter Aspe, a serious crime - usually one or more murders in the author's home town Bruges - gets investigated by the grumpy but brilliant chief inspector Pieter Van In and his team.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 405
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Belgium
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, detective
Similar in 83%
Murder City (2004)
Plot Summary:
British police drama that revolves around two mismatched detectives who scour London solving complex cases.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 658
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 90%
Foyle's War (2002)
Plot Summary:
As WW2 rages around the world, DCS Foyle fights his own war on the home-front as he investigates crimes on the south coast of England. Foyle's War opens in southern England in the year 1940. Later series sees the retired detective working as an MI5 agent operating in the aftermath of the war.
IMDB Rating: 8.6
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, War
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: clever, serious, captivating, detective, suspenseful, realistic, crime drama, atmospheric, dark, period piece
Similar in 81%
Midsomer Murders (1997)
Plot Summary:
The peacefulness of the Midsomer community is shattered by violent crimes, suspects are placed under suspicion, and it is up to a veteran DCI and his young sergeant to calmly and diligently eliminate the innocent and ruthlessly pursue the guilty.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 38000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, detective, crime drama, realistic, serious, suspenseful, clever, dark, slasher, thrilling
Similar in 82%
Silent Witness (1996)
Plot Summary:
Silent Witness is a British crime thriller series focusing on a team of forensic pathology experts and their investigations into various crimes.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: detective, rough, bleak, realistic, serious, crime drama, bloody, suspense, tense, brutal
Similar in 89%
Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector (2020)
Plot Summary:
Former NYPD detective and forensic genius Lincoln Rhyme was at the top of his game until a serious accident at the hands of a notorious serial killer forced him out of the field. When Amelia Sachs, an intuitive young officer who has a gift for profiling, finds herself hot on the killer's trail, Rhyme finds a partner for this new game of cat and mouse.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 43 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, detective, psychological
Similar in 75%
Grantchester (2014)
Plot Summary:
Drama series set in 1953, against the backdrop of the real hamlet of Grantchester. The drama focuses upon the life of Sidney Chambers, a charismatic, charming clergyman who turns investigative vicar when one of his parishioners dies in suspicious circumstances.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, detective, crime drama, period piece, slasher, costume drama, historical drama, realistic, suspenseful