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It's well known that the UK produces the best crime/police/detective dramas in print and on TV, with books and shows such as Sherlock Holmes, Poirot, Midsomer Murders and Death In Paradise being rightly famed. As well as having invented the whole genre with Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone.

This art form has spread all over the world. For example, Poirot has been remade practically scene for scene in Japan as a detective called Akafuji. The BBC re-imagining of Sherlock Holmes was copied by the Americans and set in New York, and of course Life On Mars was licensed and remade for US TV.

So the quest is now on for the second-best producers of this kind of show. In my view, the USA and the Nordics are level-pegging. The USA has an illustrious history of police procedurals as well as various well-known private eyes, while the Nordics have made a big impact in the past few years with a variety of gritty dramas. The French IMO have fallen behind, Maigret being the last detective of note, but perhaps that is only because of the lack of modern translations. The Japanese seem to be coming on, with several novelists getting paperback English translations. I will also give a nod to Italy, thanks to the excellent Inspector Montalbano shows.

Which countries are up there, in your opinion?

We do NOT speak of the American remake of Life on Mars.

The US has spawned both the Law & Order and C.S.I series of TV shows. As far as I'm concerned they take 2nd

Those are good examples, but I hope to hear about more non-English language books and programmes. (Inspector Montalbano has been superb.)

Well the US has Psych, and Monk, and Law and Order, and... And... Hawaii 5.0 XD

But nah. I think our cop shows aren't bad, they're just absurdly generic most of the time and the ones that aren't mostly just run off some gimmick like "guy pretends to be psychic" or "detective with OCD" and such. Foyle's War (or was it Floyd's?) was so good. Luther too. And Sherlock. Not just for their little gimmicks but for their general plots and narrative.

If I had to pick a country as second best for me it would be Japan. Psycho-Pass. Ghost in the Shell. Terror in Resonance. Death Note. They put on good, if bizarre and not for everyone, crime/cop shows.

Reno 911 is the greatest cop show ever on American TV

I know this might be a lone voice, but I really like the Commissario Brunetti series of movies from Germany.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
Those are good examples, but I hope to hear about more non-English language books and programmes. (Inspector Montalbano has been superb.)

Tatort is pretty good and very popular in German-speaking countries. I'm surprised it wasn't mentioned already.

I think part of the appeal of Tatort is that Germany loves to collectively make fun of it. But it's a cultural cornerstone, that's for sure.

Denmark. The Bridge, the Killing. Quality programming.

 JamesY wrote:
Denmark. The Bridge, the Killing. Quality programming.

The Bridge is a Danish/Swedish/German joint venture though.

It's still part of the Nordic surge of the past few years.

What about something from Africa or South America?

 LordofHats wrote:
Luther too.

Luther deserved more than 16 episodes across 4 seasons. That show is amazing.

Certainly, the British have Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie. No arguments from me that those two alone put Britain at #1.

But America is certainly a close second with the literary creations of Raymond Chandler, Rex Stout, and Dashiel Hammett. And then the golden age of radio brought us Richard Diamond, Johnny Dollar, and Dragnet. And tv brought us Perry Mason, Ben Matlock, and Lennie Briscoe.

And if were to be totally honest, Jerry Orbach's Briscoe could have pushed the US into #1 if he had lived a few more years.

Of course, the US and Britain have to share Jessica Fletcher. British actress, but American tv show.

Death in Paradise? Not half as good as Brooklyn 99 imo.

Germany/Austria or the Scandinavian countries if hou want really good detective dramas next to the British ones.

I loved me some Commisar Rex. Good memories. Hasn't been shown on tv here in ages.

While British crime dramas are good, I don't actually think they take 1st. As awesome as Sherlock and the other various shows are, they are basically rehashes of older works and not original. And I think originality is important in this type of show because it can be tough to keep the variety going.

Columbo wins 2nd for the US by himself.

Peter Falk is amazeballs.

Longmire is a great "cop" show. He's a Sheriff in a rural county in Wyoming. It deals with Cheyenne Indian tribe issues which is a good cultural change-up from the procedurals.

The current Chicago "three", Chicago P.D., Chicago Fire, and Chicago Med are also good in that they have intertwining storylines and a lot of crossover that actually feel natural or "organic" in how they're handled.

 Nostromodamus wrote:
Columbo wins 2nd for the US by himself.

Peter Falk is amazeballs.

True but there hasn't been anything like Columbo on TV in decades. :(

Brisco County Jr. .... nuff said.

 Breotan wrote:
True but there hasn't been anything like Columbo on TV in decades. :(

Maybe not on your TV

Flame bait title detected!

Original premise...flawed?

 Kilkrazy wrote:
It's well known that the UK produces the best crime/police/detective dramas in print and on TV...

It is?

I mean, sure, the U.K. used to do a lot of things well, but nowadays?

Jury's still out...!

Think is if you turn back the clock to the 70's it would be plain as day that the US produces the best police/detective shows.

Rockford Files, Kojak and Starsky & Hutch come to mind.
Add to that later additions like Cagney & Lacey and Columbo and you have firm contention from America.

Currently the US productions don't match the UK ones, but TV never dies, it just gets repeated and many of the above shows are very watchable today.

I would rate Columbo over most if not all British detective shows. Though he is no Sherlock Holmes and never can be.

It saddens me that there is a serious lack of The Andy Griffith Show in this thread. Barny Fife was the greatest detective to ever live.

 Grey Templar wrote:
While British crime dramas are good, I don't actually think they take 1st.

Me neither, the US also falls quite far short of the mark (although there are exceptions like the first series of True Detective). Sweden is probably my choice as Number 1 although that is based on a small sample size.

 Silent Puffin? wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:
While British crime dramas are good, I don't actually think they take 1st.

Me neither, the US also falls quite far short of the mark (although there are exceptions like the first series of True Detective). Sweden is probably my choice as Number 1 although that is based on a small sample size.

Have you missed NCIS, CSI, Psyche, etc... I could go on.

 Grey Templar wrote:
NCIS, CSI,

These shows are trash (and their related spin offs are even worse) I love Law and Order and I don't even think any of the Law and Order series' have been great. Just a good way to sit back and kill time.

Psyche, etc... I could go on.

I liked Psyche, but it was more of a comedy than a true blue Detective 'drama.' The show didn't take itself seriously, which was to it's benefit, but I think that puts it slightly off what this thread is asking.

But seriously, have you not seen Luther or Foyle's War? I found the later to be especially good in the early seasons when Foyle was trying to solve crimes in the midst of the early years of WWII.

 LordofHats wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:
NCIS, CSI,

These shows are trash (and their related spin offs are even worse)

 Grey Templar wrote:
While British crime dramas are good, I don't actually think they take 1st. As awesome as Sherlock and the other various shows are, they are basically rehashes of older works and not original. And I think originality is important in this type of show because it can be tough to keep the variety going.

Agreed. I think if you look at the genre as a whole, the US does take the top spot.

I mean, you have Magnum PI, Miami Vice, COPS (hey now... just because it's simply "ride along TV" doesn't mean it's not a crime "drama" ), Perry Mason, Matlock, the CSIs, the Law and Order franchise, NCIS, Hawaii 5-o (both classic and new), Brooklyn 99, etc.

Then when we get into books, there are guys like Thomas Harris (the Hannibal Lector series is considered crime/detective genre), Lee Child (the Jack Reacher author) and a number of other authors


Also, as our trump card, I will present: Batman

I will admit that Cops is awesome if only because of all the things you can laugh at that happen on it XD