Which is the best TV crime drama of all time? Mirror writers pick their prime suspect
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The mystery of the nation’s all-time favourite British TV crime drama is about to be solved.
The Radio Times has launched a poll based on a shortlist of the 50 shows, chosen by a panel of experts.
Full of cops and robbers, they span the decades, from Dixon of Dock Green, first broadcast in 1955, to modern day Line of Duty and Broadchurch.
Here our brilliant writers give a few clues to their prime suspect...
Amber Graafland
Luther
(Image: BBC)
The whole whodunit obsession has mercifully passed me by. There are so many, I find it completely overwhelming. But I have to confess getting sucked in by Luther. Idris Elba having pretty much everything to do with it.
Endless hours of watching him can hardly be classified as time wasted now can it? I continued watching way beyond the point of being terrified. Even if it meant I couldn’t sleep without checking all the cupboards. And under the bed.
In the end I had to split the episodes into three parts. And even now I’m convinced there’s someone living in my attic. Idris has a lot to answer for.
Jessica Boulton
Lovejoy
Long before Aidan Turner’s Poldark, another dark-haired star was leaving middle-aged women hot under the collar on a Sunday night - cheeky chappy antiques dealer, Lovejoy.
And not only was Ian MacShane’s wheeling-dealing conman full of charm, he was also pretty good at solving the odd crime, whether it was the ageing film star robbed of her treasures, the headmistress who was being blackmailed or the widow robbed of her husband’s snuff box.
The crimes might not have been on par with the Hatton Gardens diamond heist, but just like today’s shows like Castle and The Mentalist, it proved you didn’t have to be a detective to put the bad guys behind bars.
Nigel Thompson
The Sweeney
(Image: Granada Television)
“Get yer trousers on, you’re nicked!” The classic phrase that defined this 70s cops ‘n’ robbers cracker.
About as politically incorrect as you could get, it shouted, boozed, pistol-whipped and swaggered its way across our TVs in a haze of burning rubber from a Ford Consul Granada MK1 GT (how I wanted one when I was old enough to drive). It was a world where criminals were ‘slags’ and women always seemed to wear negligees.
But with John Thaw as DI Jack Regan and Dennis Waterman his oppo DS George Carter, the casting was stellar (or more likely Stella, given the time they spent in the pub).
“We’re The Sweeney, son, and we haven’t had any dinner.”
And we haven’t had anything like it since. Which is probably for the best, Guv’nor.
Polly Hudson
Line of Duty
(Image: BBC)
There have been times watching Line Of Duty when I have been seriously worried about my health. Not so worried I considered, even for a millisecond, stopping watching it of course... but, still, worried.
After all, it can’t be good for your heart to beat quite so fast, for a whole hour – and after every episode there’s also backache to contend with, because you have been perched literally(itals) on the edge of your seat, and neckache, from straining forward anxiously, desperate not to miss anything.
At the end of series 3, a long-running, extremely compelling storyline was finally wrapped up – no spoilers here, obviously – and it was hard not to worry that the series would go off the boil. Instead it’s only gone from strength to strength. Long may Line Of Duty continue... and, to clarify, by ‘long’ I mean ‘forever’ please.
Kevin Maguire
Midsomer Murders
(Image: ITV)
Staked to his lawn with croquet hoops and pelted to death with wine bottles catapulted by a replica Roman contraption was a bizarre way to go. No crime drama is more preposterous or better than Midsomer Murders, the pretty English villages rivalling war zones on the body count front.
I love the comedic nonsense of folk dying from frog poison, spinning to death in giant tumble dryers or crushed under enormous toppling stacks of old newspapers.
Replacing John Nettles’ DCI Tom Barnaby with his cousin DCI John Barnaby, played by Neil Dudgeon, seamlessly maintained the warm embrace of death. Midsomer Murders isn’t intellectually taxing or frightening but keeps you guessing.
Rachael Bletchly
Cracker
He was an obese, alcoholic, chain smoking, gambling addict with a potty mouth and a tortured personal life.
But Dr Edward “Fitz” Fitzgerald made Cracker the most gripping crime drama in British TV history.
Written and created by the great Jimmy McGovern it starred Robbie Coltrane as the sarcastic, charismatic psychologist and criminal profiler who could get inside the mind of a murderer and help cops “crack” the crime. But Cracker also showed the police as human, flawed characters working under intense pressure.
It was brilliantly gritty with a fantastic cast - Barbara Flynn as Fitz’s long-suffering wife Judith, Geraldine Somerville as DS Jane Penhaligon and Christopher Eccleston and Ricky Tomlinson playing cops.
Guest stars like Robert Carlye, John Simm and Samantha Morton also made it fizz
“I drink too much, I smoke too much, I gamble too much. I AM too much,” said Fitz in one episode.
But I couldn’t get enough of the cracking antihero.