The best crime TV shows of 2023

It wasn’t too long ago that the act of watching television used to be a pretty straightforward affair. A black box in the corner of your living room, you’d turn it on and watch one of the available channels. Easy. Nowadays, however, it can be a remote control-juggling affair requiring planning, browsing, applications, downloads and a Master’s Degree in computer sciences.

Still, while the various hardware, software, buttons, apps and streams may have made deciding what to watch a slightly more complicated affair, they’ve also opened up a whole new world of entertainment, with an incredible number of new crime dramas available to you. Picking which are worth your consideration and discovering the best new crime TV shows may be something of a challenge.

That’s where we come in. Here are the best TV shows to catch up on from 2023.

Happy Valley series 3

2023 is certainly off with a bang with one of the most hotly anticipated new crime TV shows of the year. Sally Wainwright’s multi-Bafta award winning hit Happy Valley returns to the BBC on New Year’s Day, starring Sarah Lancashire as Sergeant Catherine Cawood.

When Catherine discovers the remains of a gangland murder victim in a drained reservoir, it sparks a chain of events that leads her straight back to Tommy Lee Royce (James Norton). It’ll be bittersweet for us fans of the show who have waited so long for this new outing, as the third series will also be its last.

Six Four

ITV’s Six Four is a drama based on Hideyo Yokoyama’s bestselling thriller, in which a police officer desperately searches for his missing teenage daughter.

Chris O’Neill (Kevin McKidd – Trainspotting, Grey’s Anatomy), becomes interested in the unsolved case of Julie Mackie, a missing local girl, after his own daughter goes missing. Chris discovers evidence of blunders and corruption as he investigates Julie’s case further. As she searches for their daughter on her own, his wife Michelle – a former undercover police detective (played by Vinette Robinson) – is drawn further into the criminal underworld.

Kaleidoscope

Giancarlo Esposito, Paz Vega, Jai Courtney and Rufus Sewell form part of an impressive ensemble cast in this ambitious Netflix series which explores what may well have been the greatest heist in history and undeniably one of Wall Street’s weirdest ever events.

In 2012, during Hurricane Sandy, a bank’s underground vault became flooded and some $70 billion in bearer bonds went missing. Using this as a jumping off point, this nonlinear series imagines what might’ve happened before, during and after. The cool thing/gimmick? You’re encouraged to watch the episodes in any order you like. Which sounds weird (and almost certainly is). It may also be a television gamechanger. We’ll see. All things being well, Kaleidoscope should be with us from New Year’s Day.

Wolf

Based on Mo Hayder’s acclaimed Jack Caffery novels, this Wales-set six-part BBC crime thriller will be adapted by Megan Gallagher. It stars Ukweli Roach in the lead role of DI Jack Caffery, with a supporting cast including the likes of Iwan Rheon, Sian Reese-Williams, Sacha Dhawan and Juliet Stevenson.

The plot centres around a wealthy family living in an isolated spot who are trapped and terrorised by a sadistic psychopath. It sounds seriously dark – and as huge Mo Hayder fans, we can’t wait.

In the mean time, check out our list of 7 novels to read if you can’t wait for the BBC drama Wolf.

Perry Mason series 2

It took HBO less than a month after seeing the first episode of their Perry Mason reboot hit screens to order a second series. Two years later and here we are. Set during the Great Depression, this origin story of the famous Mason was one of 2020’s best new dramas and so we await this follow-up eagerly.

Welshman Matthew Rhys is back as the badly-dressed defence lawyer and sleuth who solves crimes while defending those unfairly accused of them. Sean Astin joins the cast for this sophomore effort that sees Perry and his team investigating the murder of an oil baron. Expect corruption and conspiracies galore.

Payback

One of ITV’s leading crime dramas for next year comes in the shape of Payback, a character-driven series that pits The Bay’s Morven Christie against Ozark’s Peter Mullan. Christie is Lexie Noble, a woman who discovers that her husband is laundering dirty money for a major Edinburgh gangster, Cal Norris (Mullan). Prasanna Puwanarajah and Derek Riddell co-star as the financial investigators working the case.

Peter Mullan is always incredible as a vicious gangster. If he can bring half the energy, charisma and grit he brought to similar roles in series’ such as The Fear or Quarry, we’re in for a real treat here.

Stonehouse

Real-life husband and wife Matthew Macfadyen (Succession) and Keeley Hawes (Bodyguard) team up to help tell the story of disgraced Labour MP John Stonehouse. On writing duties is John Preston, the scribe behind A Very British Scandal. So it’s in good hands.

The story was big back in the 1970s but, for whatever reason, disappeared from the popular consciousness. Much like Stonehouse himself who – to use television parlance – ‘pulled a Reginald Perrin’ back in 1974, walking into the sea never to be seen again. Kind of. It’s a fascinating tale that’s coming to ITV in 2023, no doubt ably directed by Stan & Ollie and Filth helmsman Jon S Baird.

Criminal Record

This Apple TV+ production stars Peter Capaldi and Cush Jumbo as two Met police detectives battling over an old case. One’s looking to protect their legacy and reputation, while the other is out to uncover the truth of what really happened.

This London-set tale of racism, corruption, institutional failure and cover-up is set to be an eight-parter. It comes from the keyboard and mind of Vera screenwriter and Indian Summers creator Paul Rutman.

Shetland series 8

Douglas Henshall’s exit from BBC’s popular Shetland was announced before series 7 aired in 2022. DI Jimmy Perez has definitely departed, with the show’s producers opting to carry on in a kind of Taggart/The Bay style, creating an entirely new character to replace Henshall’s lovable Perez.

Extras actress Ashley Jensen will fill in as DI Ruth Calder, a native from the island who is returning to the isles after two decades working for the Met down in That London.

The Sixth Commandment

When you see Sarah Phelps’ name attached to something, you take notice. The screenwriter behind Dublin Murders and A Very British Scandal has also been responsible for bringing five Agatha Christie adaptations to the screen in the past few years. Here, she tackles the dramatisation of a real story.

Although they were both devout Christians, churchwarden Peter Farquhar (Timothy Spall – Mr Turner) and his neighbour Ann Moore-Martin (Last Tango in Halifax‘s Anne Reid) both fell in love with the charismatic student Ben Field (Normal People‘s Éanna Hardwicke). Shockingly, Field would financially exploit and kill both. This BBC drama depicts how Field saw and used both victims merely as objects, exploring the terrible gaslighting he subjected them to, the police investigation into his crimes and the ensuing public trial. It’s a four-parter that looks to be equal parts horrifying and sad. A tough, but potentially important, watch.

The Gold

Jack Lowden, Hugh Bonneville, Dominic Cooper and Charlotte Spencer star in this high-end BBC and Paramount+ co-production about the Brink’s-Mat robbery.

One of the most remarkable and controversial crimes in modern British history will be brought to the small screen by writer Neil Forsyth (Eric, Ernie & Me) and directed by Academy Award winner Aneil Karia (The Long Goodbye) and Lawrence Gough (The Last Bus).

The Hunt for Raoul Moat

This ITV series comes at its audience knowing full well they may well wince when hearing about it. But, of course, modern television is extremely sensitive to accusations of exploitation. And so it goes that this look at the crimes, manhunt, victims and impact of the headline-grabbing Raoul Moat incident back in 2010 will almost certainly be tactfully handled.

As with recent true crime dramas examining the crimes of Dennis Nilsen and Stephen Port, the emphasis and focus here will be on the victims and the police investigation. Lee Ingleby, Sonya Cassidy and Matt Stokoe star.