British Crime Dramas in the US?

[Tom Greer]

Hi, I've just joined and am glad to be part of the community.

I was wondering whether you get many UK TV crime shows shown in the States? For example, Rebus (from the Ian Rankin novels) set in Edinburgh, Taggart set in Glasgow, DCI Banks (from the Peter Robinson novels) Morse (set in Oxford and from the Colin Dexter novels).

Tom

An Expendable Spy on Amazon

[I. J. Parker]

Welcome!  They may all be available in some areas. I have only see the Morse knockoffs (the original, plus Banks and the early Morse) But we also got Mankell and Sherlock Holmes is running (though I don't watch it) and there used to be others that were very good. Can't wait for Rebus and Taggart. British shows are much better than American ones. 

[I. J. Parker]

Oh, and there was an excellent one, only 3 segments, of the Dibdin novels set in Italy.

[Mark Baker]

The Aurelio Zen series was cancelled - the new BBC director thought there were too many crime series.  Though evidently not enough mawkish period soap operas judging by the replacements.

[Eric Christopherson]

I've seen a bunch of the Rebus shows via Netflix. Preferred the second Rebus in the series. Enjoyed the glimpses of Edinburgh too. (I've got relatives from there. Intend to visit one day.)

[Dana King]

Our best shots at British shows are Netflix, Public Broadcasting, and BBC America. The Beloved Spouse and i were regular watchers of LUTHER and COPPER, and we have PRIME SUSPECT in our Netflix queue.

[Tom Greer]

Luther is good...and new. The big thing over here now is European crime dramas (and especially Scandinavian ones like Wallender and The Bridge) on BBC 4 on Saturday nights at 9pm. All subtitled...who'd have believed Brits would watch foreign language TV...but they do!

[Mark Baker]

I really enjoyed Luther (starring Idris Elba fron The Wire), though it has now come to an end.  The European show I would recommend is Spiral (Engrenages en francais), which BBC has co-commissioned further series with their French counterparts.  At the very least it's a fascinating window on a completely different judicial system as well as compelling drama - series 2 was one of the most gripping crime dramas I have ever watched.

[Tom Greer]

The problem with Spiral (though admittedly not its fault) is one of the main characters looks exactly like Catherine "am I bovvered?" Tate.

[Stephen Seitz]

Tom, you'll have a ball on Netflix.

[Suzanne]

The best source of British TV shows is the Acorn TV web page. Acorn is a catalog mail order business featuring British TV series on DVD's and British-made souvenirs. They used to stream just the first episode of a series, hoping the viewers would then buy the DVD. Now you can become a member for $49.95 a year and watch everything.

You can see all of Morse. Also, last year a new series called Endeavor was televised. What it is are stories from when Morse was just beginning as a police detective. These shows are of high quality, not just wannabe knock-offs.