Obsessed w/ British Detective Shows

How about The Sweeney? There's some gritty 70's cop stuff in there.
"We're The Sweeney, son, and we haven't had any dinner!"

 

I and my family still watch it, but we prefered Ben Miller as the lead

 

Another 90s U.K detective/police series is Wyclffe based on a series of books and set in Cornwall.

There's also the Inspector Lynley Mysteries (again from books) and Ruth Rendell's Inspector Wexford (was never really a fan).

Finally the adaptions of P.D James's novels around Adam Dalgliesh initially played by Roy Marsden and then for two by Martin Shaw (George Gently). Never saw in the of the Roy Marsden series but have seen the two to with Shaw that were watchable enough.

 

Never heard of Wycliffe. Anything you would compare it to?

 

Not that I can think of.

Been quite a while since I've watched but it but one think I do remember - he has two detective sergeants who work under him but don't just tag along. The story follows them as they work on their own.

 

There is also The Detectives, but that is more a spoof of the detective genre.

New Tricks and Silent Witness to name another couple

 

Pie In The Sky. Richard Griffiths (Harry's abusive stepdad in Harry Potter, or Uncle Monty if you've seen Withnail & I) is Henry Crabbe, a police detective who would very much like to retire and run his - well, it's in his wife's name and he's technically head chef - restaurant (the titular Pie In The Sky) full-time, except he's so good his boss won't let him. At the start of the series, he's only 7 weeks off retirement but the circumstances of the case make it appear he took a bribe. His boss uses the threat of reopening an inquiry into this to leverage Crabbe into taking on cases where his skills are needed.

 

Wonderful. Almost up there with : ' Get yer trousers on - you're nicked !'

There was a great Sweeney spoof for Nissan cars :

I've got something of a soft spot for Wycliffe - I know a lot of the places they filmed.

Decent show - well worth investigating.

 

Pie in The Sky was not too bad.

 

Steady - don't go overboard !

 

Wallander with Kenneth Branagh is a great series. It's a BBC production about a Swedish detective. Wallander is something of a sad character with the way his work plays havoc in his life but it makes a great drama. Tom Hiddleston plays one of his fellow detectives in the first two series and is as fun as ever to watch.

 

I enjoyed that too a hell of a lot when it was on. I'd forgotten Tom Hiddleston was in it though.

 

So far as older stuff goes, a lot of 60s Z Cars - pretty much the founding text of UK cop shows - can be found, ahh, online. (Colm Meaney was in its final season in 1978, but it's the 1962-65 ones you'll find. Be warned, black and white, and often live).
Currently watching a dvd of Rockliffe's Babies, a 1987 try at revamping Z-Cars post Hill Street. Melinda McGraw just played a WPC, five years before Scully's sister in X-Files.
Another worth trying is a quartet of linked series (11 seasons in total): The XYY Man, Strangers, Bulman and The Paradise Club.

Ooh, on radio (again... look online) there's Outbreak of Fear. Written by the creator of Frost, initially rather like Wycliffe in style, with Nicholas Courtney (the Brigadier in Doctor Who) as a Scotland Yard detective who may not be what he claims...

 

Marsden was much better... even won PD James over, despite her initial reaction ("Too common."). By the 80s she was writing the books with him in mind, and was unhappy about Shaw taking over.

 

I did enjoy the Marsden series (and is who I pictured when I read some of the books later), but didn't watch it long enough to know Shaw took it over later.

 

The originals are great too - whether Rolf Lassgård or Kristaer Henriksson playing Wallander. Henriksson is my favourite.

 

Would you recommend one over the other?

 

Lassgård did the adaptations of most of the books and some of his stuff looks a bit dated now. He's a bit of a shambling big man which didn't quite fit with my idea of Wallander, but he was good. Henriksson played Wallander in the adaptations of the last two books and about thirty 'episodes' plotted by the author but not based on books. He nailed it for me.

Completely separately, the BBC adapted most of the books in English with Kenneth Brannagh in the role. I can't fault them, I'd start there.

Progress to the Henrikssons if you still need a fix when you've finished the Brannaghs.

 

Thanks!

 

You're welcome !

I own everything available - I'm a bit of a fan.

By the way, everything but the Brannaghs is subtitled.