Detectives have always been a staple of British television, whether they’re moody professional coppers or amateur sleuths. And with David Mitchell’s Ludwig recently crowned the most-watched BBC series of the year so far, it seems we’re still not fed up with following their investigations.
But if you’ve already watched Detective Barnaby sleuthing in Midsomer, Luther sulk his way around London’s backstreets, and Father Brown keep the peace in the most murderous part of the Cotswolds, it can feel like you’ve already watched everything the world of detectives has to offer. Not likely – there are plenty of undiscovered gems to uncover.
Here are 11 underrated detective series that are available to watch on BBC iPlayer now:
The Hairdresser Mysteries
I’m not always the biggest fan of cosy crime, but cast comedy queen Sally Phillips as a murder-solving hairdresser called Lily Petal and I’m there with bells on. There are bodies turning up all over the village of Blossom Vale, and where better to pick up on gossip than the local salon? The Hairdresser Mysteries is a brand-new series for 2026 and didn’t get the attention it deserved simply because it was on during the day. It’s brilliantly bananas in the way that only daytime TV can get away with.
The Turkish Detective
This Istanbul-set crime drama introduces us to detective Cetin Ikmen (Haluk Bilginer, best remembered as EastEnders’ Mehmet Osman in the 1980s), a veteran homicide investigator who knows the city – and its criminals – like the back of his hand. Working alongside him is British detective Mehmet Suleyman (Ethan Kai), who has moved to Turkey to uncover the truth about his journalist girlfriend. Alongside that overarching investigation, Ikmen and Suleyman take on a fresh death in each of the eight episodes, making for an energetic drama that’s just on the right side of cheesy.
The Jetty
Jenna Coleman’s detective Ember Manning grew up in the Lancashire village she now polices, making her job of exacting justice all the more difficult. Case in point: an arson attack at the very beginning of the series happens to be at a building owned by her late husband. But it’s when a pregnant teenager throws herself off a roof and onto Manning’s car bonnet that The Jetty really ramps up, and the town’s secrets come spilling out at breakneck speed. With more twists and turns than a snake with an itch, you’re best watching this one on a weekend – you won’t be able to stop until you’ve watched all four episodes.
In the Dark
Based on the Mark Billingham novels Time of Death and In the Dark, this four-part limited series sees MyAnna Buring take on the role of pregnant detective Helen Weeks. The first two episodes focus on the disappearance of two young girls, a case in which the finger is squarely pointed at her childhood best friend’s husband. The final two, however, are set months later, when a person close to (a now heavily pregnant) Helen is shot in a seemingly random act of violence – she can’t catch a break. The investigation leads her to a murky underworld of Manchester’s gangs and police corruption.
Hamish Macbeth
If the word “gritty” makes you want to permanently lose your remote down the back of your sofa, then you might find joy in this 90s series. Written by Daniel Boyle (not Danny), who has made episodes for some of the detective big hitters like Inspector Morse, Taggart and Lewis, it leans more into comedy than serious crime drama, with Robert Carlyle as the eponymous police constable Hamish. While he’s not technically a detective – in fact, he’d do anything to avoid being promoted to one, including letting others take credit for his own work – Hamish (and his dog Wee Jock) is willing to go the extra mile to keep the peace in the not-so-sleepy Scottish town of Lochdubh.
High Country
“Australian rural noir” might be quite a niche genre of crime drama, but if High Country is anything to go by, it’s one well worth diving into. Baffled by the mysterious disappearance of five people, detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (Leah Purcell) sets about uncovering where they went – and, crucially, how they went missing. Blocking her investigation, however, are the locals, who range from the generally unhelpful (one man claims to have information because he is “psychic”) to the downright hostile – perhaps they’ve got something to do with the cannabis growing operation Andie exposes…
Bloodlands
Jed Mercurio is best known as the creator of perhaps one of the most overrated cop shows on TV, Line of Duty, but he’s also the producer of this underrated one set in Northern Ireland. James Nesbitt plays police detective Tom Brannick, whose latest case revolves around the disappearance of a former IRA member, presumed dead when his van is found underwater. But when the copper receives a phone call informing him that the man has been kidnapped, it sets him on a path to uncovering the identity of an IRA assassin, known only as Goliath. For Brannick, it’s a case extremely close to home – his wife was one of Goliath’s victims.
Annika
This Nicola Walker-led series originally started life as a Radio 4 drama, though that version took place in Oslo while the TV version is set in the equally atmospheric (and much easier to film) city of Glasgow. DI Annika Strandhed is deployed to the newly created Marine Homicide Unit, tasked with solving creepy crimes like a man killed with a harpoon in the Clyde and another found drifting aboard a boat at sea surrounded by stones with Norse runes. But it’s Annika herself who is the main draw, thanks to her tense relationship with her teenage daughter and her constant breaking of the fourth wall by talking straight to the camera.
Waking the Dead
At its peak in the early Noughties, Waking the Dead was watched by at least eight million viewers every week, but somehow it’s fallen off the radar in the intervening decades. Rather than just one detective, it follows the work of an entire team investigating cold cases that previously deemed unsolvable until new technology helped evidence come to light. As well as the variously grisly murders, there’s just as much action between the team. DS Peter Boyd (Trevor Eve) is quite the maverick, you see, and has to be reined in by his much more level-headed colleagues, psychological profiler Grace Foley (Sue Johnston) and DI Spencer Jordan (Wil Johnson).
Dalziel and Pascoe
Detective Superintendent Andy Dalziel (Warren Clarke) and Detective Inspector Peter Pascoe (Colin Buchanan) might as well be called Detectives Chalk and Cheese. They are polar opposites, don’t get along, and can’t understand why they have been thrown together to work as partners. Yet despite it all, they somehow work well together, solving all sorts of strange and unexpected murders. Dalziel and Pascoe is based on Reginald Hill’s series of novels which were first published in the 1970s, but it’s not exactly a traditional detective series – maybe avoid it if you want all your crimes solved by the end of the episode. Just be glad the BBC didn’t adapt One Small Step, in which Dalziel and Pascoe investigate a murder on the moon.
Return to Paradise
Death in Paradise and its spin-off Beyond Paradise are huge hits, but this newer version of the franchise doesn’t get nearly enough love. The paradise in question is Australia – the sunnily named Dolphin Cove to be exact, hometown to Detective Inspector Mackenzie “Mack” Clarke (Anna Samson), who has returned following a stint in London’s Met Police where she was accused of tampering with evidence. Somehow, the local police chief takes pity on her and – you know how the Paradise series go by now – hires her to investigate the surprising number of murders that happen in the small town.