The 50 Greatest Detective TV Series of All Time

Rumpled lieutenants, consulting geniuses, small-town sergeants and Nordic loners, drawn from six decades of television on both sides of the Atlantic. Pick the sleuth whose cases you would rewatch first.

1. 1
   Sherlock

   Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman reboot Conan Doyle's detective in modern London (2010-2017).
   1000pts
2. 2
   Columbo

   Peter Falk's rumpled LAPD lieutenant outwits wealthy murderers in the inverted-mystery classic (1971-2003).
   764pts
3. 3
   Psych

   James Roday's hyper-observant fake psychic cons the Santa Barbara police into hiring him (2006-2014).
   689pts
4. 4
   Death in Paradise

   A fish-out-of-water British detective solves murders on a Caribbean island in the BBC's cosy hit (2011-).
   632pts
5. 5
   Vera

   Brenda Blethyn's shambolic DCI Vera Stanhope solves Northumberland murders (2011-2025).
   632pts
6. 6
   Cracker

   Robbie Coltrane's brilliant, dissolute criminal psychologist Fitz helps Manchester police (1993-2006).
   619pts
7. 7
   Jonathan Creek

   Alan Davies's magic-trick designer solves seemingly impossible locked-room mysteries (1997-2016).
   600pts
8. 8
   Line of Duty

   Jed Mercurio's anti-corruption unit AC-12 interrogates bent coppers in the BBC's most-watched drama of the century (2012-2021).
   600pts
9. 9
   The Mentalist

   Simon Baker's former fake psychic Patrick Jane consults for the CBI while hunting Red John (2008-2015).
   600pts
10. 10
    Life on Mars

    John Simm's modern detective wakes up in 1973 Manchester alongside Philip Glenister's Gene Hunt (2006-2007).
    564pts
11. 11
    Magnum, P.I.

    Tom Selleck's Hawaiian private investigator, Ferrari and moustache defined 1980s TV (1980-1988).
    563pts
12. 12
    Ironside

    Raymond Burr's wheelchair-using San Francisco consultant solved crimes for eight seasons (1967-1975).
    479pts
13. 13
    Midsomer Murders

    Picturesque English villages with astonishing body counts in the long-running ITV whodunit (1997-).
    479pts
14. 14
    Prime Suspect

    Helen Mirren's DCI Jane Tennison fights sexism and killers in the landmark British procedural (1991-2006).
    479pts
15. 15
    Veronica Mars

    Kristen Bell's teenage private eye solves high-school and small-town crimes in the cult neo-noir (2004-2019).
    479pts
16. 16
    The Bridge (Bron/Broen)

    Sofia Helin's Saga Norén and a Danish partner probe cross-border killings in the Swedish-Danish hit (2011-2018).
    428pts
17. 17
    Twin Peaks

    Kyle MacLachlan's FBI agent Dale Cooper investigates Laura Palmer's murder in David Lynch's surreal landmark (1990-1991).
    428pts
18. 18
    Agatha Christie's Poirot

    David Suchet played Hercule Poirot for 25 years, adapting every Christie Poirot story (1989-2013).
    428pts
19. 19
    Endeavour

    Shaun Evans plays a young Morse in the acclaimed 1960s-set prequel (2012-2023).
    428pts
20. 20
    Kojak

    Telly Savalas's lollipop-sucking NYPD lieutenant became a 1970s icon (1973-1978).
    428pts
21. 21
    Hawaii Five-O

    Jack Lord's Steve McGarrett and 'Book 'em, Danno' ran twelve seasons in the original island procedural (1968-1980).
    428pts
22. 22
    The Fall

    Gillian Anderson's DSI Stella Gibson hunts Jamie Dornan's Belfast serial killer (2013-2016).
    371pts
23. 23
    Moonlighting

    Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd's bickering private eyes turned the detective show into screwball comedy (1985-1989).
    371pts
24. 24
    Mare of Easttown

    Kate Winslet's small-town Pennsylvania detective anchors the Emmy-winning 2021 limited series.
    371pts
25. 25
    Bosch

    Titus Welliver plays Michael Connelly's LAPD detective Harry Bosch across seven seasons (2014-2021).
    371pts
26. 26
    Happy Valley

    Sarah Lancashire's Sergeant Catherine Cawood faces down a kidnapper in Sally Wainwright's acclaimed Yorkshire drama (2014-2023).
    371pts
27. 27
    NYPD Blue

    Dennis Franz's Andy Sipowicz anchors Steven Bochco's gritty, boundary-pushing precinct drama (1993-2005).
    371pts
28. 28
    Cagney & Lacey

    The first US police drama led by two women, winning multiple Emmys (1982-1988).
    306pts
29. 29
    Monk

    Tony Shalhoub's obsessive-compulsive former detective solves San Francisco crimes in the Emmy-winning dramedy (2002-2009).
    306pts
30. 30
    Poker Face

    Natasha Lyonne's human lie detector solves a case a week in Rian Johnson's Columbo-style throwback (2023-).
    306pts
31. 31
    Inspector Morse

    John Thaw's opera-loving Oxford detective became a British TV institution (1987-2000).
    306pts
32. 32
    Luther

    Idris Elba's volatile DCI John Luther hunts London's most disturbing killers (2010-2019).
    306pts
33. 33
    Dragnet

    Jack Webb's Sergeant Joe Friday set the template for the police procedural (1951-1959, 1967-1970).
    306pts
34. 34
    Castle

    Nathan Fillion's mystery novelist shadows Stana Katic's NYPD detective in the long-running procedural (2009-2016).
    306pts
35. 35
    Taggart

    The gritty Glasgow procedural became Britain's longest-running police drama (1983-2010).
    306pts
36. 36
    Miami Vice

    Crockett and Tubbs's pastel-suited vice detectives set the style of the 1980s (1984-1989).
    306pts
37. 37
    Unforgotten

    Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar reopen decades-old cold cases in ITV's humane procedural (2015-).
    306pts
38. 38
    Lewis

    Kevin Whately's Inspector Lewis steps out of Morse's shadow with Laurence Fox's Hathaway (2006-2015).
    231pts
39. 39
    Broadchurch

    David Tennant and Olivia Colman investigate a boy's death in a Dorset seaside town (2013-2017).
    231pts
40. 40
    Shetland

    Douglas Henshall's DI Jimmy Pérez investigates murders across the windswept Scottish islands (2013-).
    231pts
41. 41
    Agatha Christie's Marple

    Geraldine McEwan and Julia McKenzie play the village sleuth in ITV's glossy Christie adaptations (2004-2013).
    231pts
42. 42
    Inspector Montalbano

    Luca Zingaretti's Sicilian commissario from Andrea Camilleri's novels became Italy's defining detective export (1999-2021).
    231pts
43. 43
    True Detective

    HBO's anthology crime series launched with Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson's Louisiana investigation (2014-).
    231pts
44. 44
    The Rockford Files

    James Garner's ex-con private eye works out of a Malibu trailer in the beloved 1970s series (1974-1980).
    231pts
45. 45
    Wallander

    Kenneth Branagh's brooding Swedish inspector Kurt Wallander headlines the BBC adaptation of Henning Mankell (2008-2016).
    231pts
46. 46
    A Touch of Frost

    David Jason's irascible DI Jack Frost ran for 18 years on ITV (1992-2010).
    143pts
47. 47
    The Killing (Forbrydelsen)

    Sofie Gråbøl's Sarah Lund and her jumper made the Danish original a global Nordic-noir phenomenon (2007-2012).
    143pts
48. 48
    Foyle's War

    Michael Kitchen's quietly principled detective solves wartime crimes on England's south coast (2002-2015).
    143pts
49. 49
    Elementary

    Jonny Lee Miller's recovering-addict Sherlock Holmes partners with Lucy Liu's Joan Watson in New York (2012-2019).
    0pts
50. 50
    Murder, She Wrote

    Angela Lansbury's mystery writer Jessica Fletcher solved a murder a week for twelve seasons (1984-1996).
    0pts

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