Do you love the mystery show Vera on Britbox? (Also available on Amazon Prime Video and YouTube). Well, here are six British crime shows that could also rock your mystery boat. All of these are whodunits, featuring women characters who are considered dubious, shady, and suspicious. But ultimately, these lady characters turn out to be lovable, strong, brilliant at their job and therefore are redeemed. They are all main characters and most of them are detectives. Some of these shows are very popular or well known, and some are deep cuts.
But before we get into it, a word about Vera. If you have not watched Vera, you must try it. At first, Vera, the lead detective, doesn’t seem so appealing. She is tough, grouchy, and a demanding boss. Yet, as each season goes on, you become enthralled and deeply charmed by her, as well as her crew. The brilliance of her character is portrayed with such heart and skill by Brenda Blethyn that you begin to feel: “I am Vera.” She solves crime after crime with precision and soul, all against a backdrop of magnificent scenery in Northumberland in the North of England. That is what Vera is: both an everywoman and a good egg. Her past haunts her and her loneliness dogs her. She dresses modestly but adds a bit of pizzazz with a lovely scarf around her neck and a signature hat and trench coat combo. She’s always on offer with “a cuppa” (tea) and drives a muddy Land Rover that never fails—even if it threatens to die. She cares deeply for her team, though she often screams and shouts at them in a head honcho way, but only because she always gets the best out of them. Her team is her family. The way she calls even the most hardened criminal “luv” makes you want to confess any wrongdoings immediately. “Give it a proper go,” as they say in Great Britain. It is the most popular mystery in England, winner of a vast array of awards, and has a whopping fourteen seasons. Why fourteen? Well, because we all relate to Vera, and we can’t get enough! Do yourself a favor and get lost in it.
So, here are six shows like Vera, with prominent female figures who mesmerize and surprise us hungry mystery fans.
Happy Valley (and ….) The Accident
Our first two picks must be discussed together because of the brilliance of Sarah Lancashire, who stars in both Happy Valley and The Accident.
Happy Valley is not a happy place, but with Sarah Lancashire as the star policewoman, you feel deep satisfaction watching her catch (or sometimes not catch) criminals. Her relationships are fraught, and her style of policing is sometimes questionable. She lives with a lot of anger and a heartbreaking backstory (an excruciating family situation) which, as any mystery fan knows, is a key part of any crime series. The show has a taut plot and speaks to the inequalities in a town rife with tension. I give it 10/10 for the acting of Sarah Lancashire, who is a genius and, like Brenda Blethyn, makes us relate to a woman who is full of rage with a heart of gold. Happy Valley is available on Britbox, Amazon Prime Video, You Tube, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home.
Since I am always looking for more shows featuring Sarah Lancashire, I also recommend a more recent series that she’s featured in: The Accident. In this mystery, Lancashire is not portraying a detective or a police officer, but, rather, a mother who is suffering after an explosion at a factory in her town and dealing with the fallout for local families and teens. It is marketed under the category of “Mystery” and certainly features crime, though I would not categorize it as a straight-up crime show. This one is more a tale of corruption and power in a small town (in Wales—a cozy, cold setting). The Accident is more focused on personal relationships and the shocking sacrifices that Sarah Lancashire’s character must make to stand up for her daughter. Also, Sarah Lancashire could read a listing for plumbing supplies and still be the most interesting actor to watch in any show (I would also recommend another show from her oeuvre, Last Tango in Halifax). Though The Accident may not be our favorite mystery crime series ever, and it’s certainly not as grueling as Happy Valley, if you like a story about a town and the tangle of the people versus the power (of companies, corporations, executives etc.), I recommend it without reservation. The Accident is available on Acorn, PBS subscription, YouTube, and Amazon Prime Video).
The Bay
The Bay features two different police detectives, both women of substance with bad pasts that chase them down. Detective Sergeant Lisa Armstrong, played by Morven Christie, is initially portrayed as a “wild mum” on a night out where she has an encounter with a supposedly random man at a bar. We discover the next day (not a spoiler—it happens within the first ten minutes) that she is in the police as a Family Liaison Officer and is given a case involving two teenagers who went missing the night before. But because she was out on the town with the mystery man at the bar, she is involved in the case and her objectivity is compromised. Med (played by Taheen Modak) is assigned to help Lisa as her new trainee. Lisa is initially very dismissive of him, but they soon become fast friends.
The Bay involves drugs, infidelity, and lots of teenagers—we also witness Lisa struggling with her own teenage children’s issues. Imogen King, who plays Lisa’s daughter, Abbie, gives a spirited performance complimented by Art Parkinson, who portrays her son, Rob, and compels us with his mix of deep confusion and pathos. As the series progresses, we see Lisa’s personal growth as she encounters more familial hardship, which threatens her independence. As well, we see the depth of her talent as a cunning detective. The story of her difficult past unfolds more in the second season, and we learn about the previous trials and tribulations she has endured. In this sophomore season, she also gets back to work on a new and brutal murder case, and a tragedy ensues which devastates her. The best—but also most offensive—line darted at Lisa in the whole series, delivered by a co-worker is, “Try not to shag anyone this time around.”
In watching the first two seasons of The Bay, it is hard to imagine there could be a good replacement for Morven Christie, as her performance is both splendidly down to earth and entertaining. But in season three, a new character, Jenn Townsend, played by Marsha Thomason, replaces Lisa Armstrong as the Family Liaison Officer. Townsend is mesmerizing, with a soothing voice and a calm demeanor. Jenn is Zen—even when being insulted and compared to Lisa. When Detective Sargent Karen Hobson, played with spunk and gumption by Erin Shanagher, describes Lisa as “shit hot—no pressure!” Jenn seems unintimidated. She steps into shoes that are hard to fill, but does so with intrigue and empathy, even though she, too, like Lisa, makes mistakes.
Jenn’s opening sequence portrays her coming in with a bang, literally: she gets into a car accident, a fender bender, on her way to her first day of work. Despite this initial kerfuffle near the town port, Jenn compassionately assists a weeping mother on the pier who has just discovered that her dead son has been dragged out of the water. Still, when she gets to the office, the team is, at first, skeptical of Jenn, saying “She can just jog the fuck home” and calling her “so selfish.” But Jen stands her ground and doesn’t accept these disparaging remarks about herself or the family that has just tragically lost their son. Stepping into a small Lancashire village as a successful black woman, she encounters both covert (and sometimes overt) racism, mixed with a good dose of misogyny. Yet, she impressively refuses to back down against these criticisms—always the professional.
Along with this quality of strength, she also has a good sense of humor. For instance, she says to her son, who asks her on the phone how her day is going, “Oh the usual! Catching bad guys and knocking heads together.” Jenn also puts herself in the shoes of the families she’s helping. For example, she reassures an out-of-control father who has lost his temper, saying, “Bloody Hell, sometimes a good fight is necessary!” The deadeye stare she throws at criminals leaves them reeling and in a puddle. In addition, the supernatural level of calm that she displays amidst the absolute tumult, chaos, and violence of the cases she works eventually allows her to win over her colleagues. Her talent as a Family Liaison Officer, and her compassion as a person shine through to solve cases.
However, underneath her unflappable demeanor, much is brewing beneath the surface. Marsha Thomason portrays this duality brilliantly. Haunted by the death of her father, and entangled in an angry relationship with her mother, Anne Jackson, played with verve and a spitfire tongue by Suzanne Packer, Jenn acts out with her family while trying to remain stoic on the job. She is coping with ups and downs with her new partner, and the challenges of being a parent to two teenagers and a stepmom to another. The brilliant acting by the teens in this show is impressive—a brave and emotional portrayal by the son, Conor Townsend, played by David Carpenter and the vulnerability of the good, easy girl, Maddie Townsend, played by Emme Haynes, who suffers in silence but is brought to the brink by very threatening events. As well, her stepdaughter, Erin, played with a cool, rebellious persona by Georgia Scholes, has a touching reversal.
A devastating event occurs in Jenn’s life that causes her to have a complete crisis of confidence. This incident is amplified by an underlying trauma from an old case for which she feels guilty and responsible. She attempts to maintain her surreal face of calm, but she has bottled up her emotions so much that she then snaps, in what one could call an aria by Marsha Thomason. It’s a bravura performance.
Also, the beautiful seaside scenery of the shows’s setting in Morecambe, a town on the coast of Lancashire and Sunderland Point (as well as those fantastic northern accents) just make The Bay even more of a “must watch.” The Bay is available on Britbox, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home.
Keeping Faith
From the first moment we meet Faith Howell, in Keeping Faith, we can tell her character is wild, but we don’t know just how wild yet. She is running out the door for a girl’s night out. She’s late and is kissing her three children and her husband frantically. She is warm and funny but chaotic. As the series develops, we realize just how much of a mess Faith really is, and we also see the darker side of her character, as she wrestles with the circumstances of her husband going missing. Added to the shock of her husband being AWOL, we see her slowly realizing the extent of the gaslighting she has previously endured from him. From the outside, their relationship looked perfect, but we soon uncover the longstanding issues she brushed aside. As she struggles to find him—she is determined to find him—she is loyal and steadfast. Then, when under threat, she becomes a tiger, and a snake: yelling, spitting, and hissing at anyone who gets in the way of her being able to protect and guard her children, for whom she has unending tenderness and love. She flies into a rage when she discovers the extent of the betrayal and the disloyalty she had failed to notice.
As well as a mother and wife, Faith is also a lawyer, in partnership with her husband, but the police department is not always her best friend. She arrives in court dressed to the nines and beguiles the judge into favoring her client, while remaining absolutely determined to uncover what has happened to her husband (even as the chief of police suspects and questions her). She is a mixture of complete charm and persuasiveness—always with a dash of power and pepper. Faith is a barn burner. If Faith was a Taylor Swift era, she would be Reputation. She is not a demure character, and this feels both refreshing and surprising. Dare I say: it’s almost Shakespearean. As played by Eve Myles, it is hard to stop watching her. Though, at times, the plot moves at a glacial pace, this show is definitely worth the watch for her performance. She gives it everything she’s got, and she’s got a lot. The small fictional town called Abercorran, (filmed in Laugharne in Carrthensch, Wales) is such an idyllic spot that it is hard to compute the juxtaposition of the beauty with the amount of pure evil that Faith must fight within it. (Honestly isn’t that what we all crave from these shows: corruption versus good scenery?) But fight it she does, and we root for her wholeheartedly in the process. Much praise also goes to the young actors portraying her daughters, Alys Howells, played by Demi Letherby, and Meghan Howells, played by Lacey Jones, who are cheeky, dramatic, and deeply soulful. Keeping Faith is available on Acorn, Amazon Prime, You tube, Sling TV, and Apple TV.
Inspector Ellis
In the opening sequence of Inspector Ellis, we quickly learn that Detective Chief Inspector Sharon Ellis is sought after as an investigator. “They wanted the best,” says her friend, Assistant Chief Constable Leighton, who has hired her as a roaming detective at a small-town police station away from her home. At the same time, as a viewer, you can sense that she has not been working lately and that this job is an important opportunity. But we also quickly see that she is in conflict about relocating to this area, as she longs for a phone message which does not come, from her daughter. You can tell by her serious and intelligent expression, portrayed with confidence and stillness by Sharon D Clarke, that she is experienced and compassionate, but also quite troubled. One of her colleagues describes her as having a “mind like a Ferrari.” She always knows the details of a case in advance and is unintimidated by the quotidian racism and lack of respect afforded to her by the local community. She immediately subtly calls out rookie Detective Sargent (DS) Chet Harper, played by Andrew Gower, because of his assumption, when he walks into the waiting room to initially greet her, that the Detective Inspector would be white. It is in this moment that racism and prejudice in the ranks of the small-town police office are foreshadowed, and this only gets more intense throughout the show.
Ellis questions the assumptions that are already in place against potential suspects, bringing a fresh perspective to the force. When a black stepfather is brought in as a suspect, she defends him, saying, “[He’s] a man under extreme stress reacting to harassment.” But she also does not easily let him off the hook, demanding the truth that she knows he is withholding about his missing stepdaughter. Her fierce questioning leads to major breaks in the case. Ellis also immediately bonds with the mother of a dead son, as she says the very thing a mother of any child wants to hear: “I want you to talk about your son in as much detail as possible.” She is also insightful with the youth in the community, who all know the dead boy and the missing girl and can pry information out of them that no one else can. Yet, she is still haunted by ongoing issues with her own child, keeping the mystery sharp and poignant.
Small details in the show, like Ellis’s frayed and tattered phone charger, signal her inner yearning and chaotic psyche, which contrast with her cool, collected, and centered appearance. The broken phone wire also adds, in a small but crucial way, to the tension of the plot, as she nearly misses calls and information from work. Still, by means of her own instinct, her great powers of perception and strict adherence to fact, as well as the act of putting herself in great potential danger, she solves the case brilliantly. Our collective breaths are held here, right through to the end. At the conclusion of the first season, her time at the racist police station ends and she continues another roaming assignment. She has also inspired the formerly meek Detective Sargent Harper to speak up against the big boss, transforming his fate as well. Inspector Ellis is available on Amazon Prime, Acorn, AMC+, and Apple TV.
Blackshore
Blackshore tells the gripping tale of Detective Inspector Fia Lucy, played by Lisa Dawn. Her career is in trouble in Dublin, having crossed the line by using force, but which she regards as protecting an innocent victim. In a flashback, we see that Fia Lucy defended a woman before the woman was harmed after they had both been called “skanks.” She can’t abide abuse, or even anticipated abuse, so she acts before they are physically threatened. She is sent back to her hometown of the (almost) eponymous Blackwater to solve a missing persons case, concerning a woman named Roisin Hurley, for which she won’t accept easy answers. The trouble is, she isn’t welcomed with open arms there either (sensing a theme here?) as she has a dark and harrowing history in the village. Looking out of her car window as she enters her hometown, we see her gazing on the townspeople with fear and skepticism. They return the doubting, angry stare. In particular, we notice one woman with venom in her eyes, and later find out that this woman’s child went missing years ago, and that she thinks that Fia Lucy is in some way culpable.
Fia Lucy is both traumatized and tough, hard to get through to, and yet, somehow, sympathetic. She appears brusque and does not even offer a “hello” to her partner, Detective Cian Furlong (played by Rory Keenan). Some of her first words to him are: “Are you lazy or just incompetent?” to which he responds, “Are you arrogant or just plain rude?” But we see as the drama proceeds that she is not cold, just psychologically blighted by a terrible crime that her dead schizophrenic father was accused of. (I won’t spoil it for you … you must watch to find out). This trauma carries a lot of weight in her interactions with the other police officers and the people of the town. The only people she gets comfort and solace from are her old family friends that put her up during her stay.
As the story unfolds, we discover her paranoia is insight and her suspicions lead to resolutions, but of course—along the way, she hurts someone and, in turn, is also hurt deeply. In her determination to find the culprit, she both uncovers information that helps to solve the present-day investigation, but also leads to the heartbreaking truth of the previous crime that haunts her psyche. Favorite line goes to Fia’s partner, Detective Cian Furlong, who says, when being challenged by his wife: “Can’t a man eat his muesli in peace?” Blackshore is available on Acorn, YouTube, Amazon Prime, and Sling TV.
Dive into these six must-watches and let us know your favorites!
