{"id":599774,"date":"2026-05-23T12:31:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T12:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/599774\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T12:31:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T12:31:13","slug":"as-good-as-grantchester-7-best-kept-secret-detective-dramas-to-watch-now-on-the-bbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/599774\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cAs good as Grantchester\u201d: 7 \u201cbest-kept-secret\u201d detective dramas to watch now on the BBC"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve ever felt like you\u2019ve seen just about every detective drama<\/a> going, we\u2019ve got some news for you. Some of the best-kept-secret detective dramas are, in fact, hiding in the BBC\u2019s rather large catalogue and we\u2019ve done a deep-dive to bring you the very best \u2013 including one that\u2019s as good as ITV’s Grantchester<\/a>. <\/p>\n

From a seriously underrated Anna Maxwell Martin<\/a> series to one that\u2019s still up there in the detective hall of fame more than a decade on from its release, we\u2019re confident you\u2019ll find something on this list that you haven\u2019t watched yet \u2013 and more, importantly, that you\u2019ll actually enjoy. So, remotes at the ready as these are the 7 best detective dramas to watch now on the BBC. <\/p>\n

Hinterland\"hinterland\"<\/p>\n

keith morris<\/p>\n

Despite being released in 2014, Hinterland is still up there in the detective drama hall of fame. At the centre of the story is tormented detective Tom Mathias (Richard Harrington), who leaves London for Aberystwyth for a fresh start, which turns out to be quite the opposite. Before he’s even had a chance to unpack, he\u2019s called to the scene of an attack at an isolated chalet in the sand dunes and he\u2019s quickly drawn back into the world he thought he\u2019d left behind. Available to watch now on BBC iPlayer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the Dark\"in<\/p>\n

BBC<\/p>\n

One from the pen of Danny Brocklehurst (the genius behind Fool Me Once and Brassic), this four-part series features two very clever, very compelling stories that take place over the course of Manchester detective Helen Weeks\u2019 (MyAnna Buring) pregnancy. We meet Helen when she discovers she\u2019s pregnant, but before she can deal with the tricky issue of whether the child is her partner and fellow detective Paul’s (Ben Batt) or the result of an affair, she\u2019s drawn into the most testing case of her entire career. Available to watch now on BBC iPlayer<\/a>.
<\/p>\n

Dublin Murders\"dublin<\/p>\n

Netflix<\/p>\n

This adaptation of Tana French\u2019s bestselling Dublin Murder Squad novels is every bit as good as you\u2019d hope. Set during the height of the Celtic Tiger financial boom of the millennium, our lead detectives are Rob Reilly (Killian Scott) and Cassie Maddox (Sarah Greene), who have two murder investigations on their hands that are seemingly unrelated. But we\u2019ll soon discover that they have more in common that first anticipated \u2013 and that every tiny detail matters. Available to watch now on BBC iPlayer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rebus\"rebus\"<\/p>\n

BBC<\/p>\n

Based on the bestselling books by Ian Rankin, Rebus is the sort of series you can get lost in for many hours. Set in Edinburgh, the drama reimagines John Rebus as a younger Detective Sergeant and has something of a dark edge. In series one, we see him drawn into a violent criminal conflict that turns personal when his brother Michael, a former soldier, crosses the line into criminality. Torn between protecting his brother and enforcing the law to bring Michael to justice, it ends on a major cliffhanger that fans are still waiting for answers to. Available to watch now on BBC iPlayer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Granite Harbour\"granite<\/p>\n

BBC<\/p>\n

It\u2019s off to Aberdeen for this one where former Royal Military Police officer Lance Corporal Davis Lindo (Romario Simpson) is a new recruit to Police Scotland. Having completed his final tour with the Royal Military Police, he dreams of being a detective at New Scotland Yard, but instead, finds himself being sent to train as a Detective Constable in the North East of Scotland and must quickly adapt to his new life, which is a world away from anything he\u2019s known before. Fortunately, he has DCI Lara \u2018Bart\u2019 Bartlett (Hannah Donaldson) to help him along. Available to watch now on BBC iPlayer<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Ludwig\"ludwig,2,lucy<\/p>\n

Colin Hutton<\/p>\n

The first series of this brilliant comedy-mystery captivated over 9.5 million viewers and it\u2019s easy to see why. The story introduces us to John \u201cLudwig\u201d Taylor (David Mitchell), a puzzle setter who finds himself impersonating his missing police detective brother James in order to track him down. Both funny and extremely clever, the real star of the show is Anna Maxwell Martin, who plays James\u2019s wife, Lucy Betts-Taylor, and is utterly brilliant in the role. If you enjoyed Grantchester\u2019s cosy nature, Ludwig is just as good. Available to watch now on BBC iPlayer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Jetty\"tx<\/p>\n

BBC<\/p>\n

Jenna Coleman is as commanding as ever in this brilliant BBC series, which follows her character, DC Ember Manning, on a mission to uncover the link between a missing person’s cold case and a fire that destroys a house being developed into a holiday home. A brutally honest look at how women navigate a fundamentally male world, the case pushes her to her mental – and physical – limits as she works to find the links between the cold case, the arson attack and an illicit relationship between a man in his twenties and two underage girls. Available to watch now on BBC iPlayer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

READ MORE TV NEWS HERE<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019ve ever felt like you\u2019ve seen just about every detective drama going, we\u2019ve got some news for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[243,204751,204750,96,144703,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-599774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-bbc","tag-bbc-detective-dramas","tag-best-detective-dramas","tag-entertainment","tag-grantchester","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}