The 10 Best British Mysteries & Crime Dramas on Netflix (US) in 2026
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Last Updated on April 26, 2026 by Stefanie Hutson
For a few years, Netflix was relatively quiet in terms of new British TV. They had a handful of solid Netflix productions, but much of their BBC/ITV catalogue disappeared from the platform as rights expired and other platforms clung a bit more tightly to their rights. That's changed recently, though, and in addition to some great Netflix originals, they've recently brought in some “outside” titles.
With that in mind, we thought it a great time to take a look at the best of the best currently on the platform – in no particular order.
If you're interested in a more comprehensive look at what's available across a wide variety of US streaming platforms, we recommend checking out our upcoming British TV Streaming Guide: US Edition, Summer 2026. Copies begin shipping in the first half of May, and pre-orders are open.
Dept Q
An adaptation of Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen's bestselling novel series, relocated from its original Copenhagen setting to Edinburgh. Created by Scott Frank – who also developed The Queen's Gambit for Netflix – the nine-episode first season stars Matthew Goode as DCI Carl Morck, a prickly detective assigned to lead a new cold case unit after a traumatic on-duty shooting leaves his partner paralyzed and a colleague dead.
The supporting cast includes Kelly Macdonald as Dr. Rachel Irving, the police therapist assigned to assess Morck's fitness to return to duty, Alexej Manvelov as Akram, Morck's Syrian-born cold case assistant, Leah Byrne, and Jamie Sives. Frank has said he spent over two decades trying to bring the books to screen. Adler-Olsen's Department Q novels had already been adapted into a popular Danish film series starting in 2013. The series premiered in May 2025 and was renewed for a second season the same summer.
Thursday Murder Club
Based on Richard Osman's debut novel, published in September 2020, the adaptation rights were acquired by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment before the book had even been released. Directed by Chris Columbus (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Home Alone), the film stars Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, and Celia Imrie as four retirement-home residents who meet weekly to dissect cold cases – and find themselves tangled in a real murder on their doorstep.
The supporting cast includes David Tennant, Jonathan Pryce, Naomi Ackie, Richard E. Grant, and Tom Ellis. Principal photography took place at Shepperton Studios and in Beaconsfield, with Englefield House in Berkshire serving as the exterior of Coopers Chase retirement community. The screenplay was written by Katy Brand.
A sequel hasn't been officially confirmed, but given the success of both the novels and the first movie, and the eagerness expressed by many involved, it seems likely to happen.
Grantchester
Running since 2014 on ITV, Grantchester is based on James Runcie's series of short stories collectively titled The Grantchester Mysteries. The show pairs DI Geordie Keating – played throughout by Robson Green – with a succession of amateur-detective vicars: first James Norton as Reverend Sidney Chambers (Series 1–4), then Tom Brittney as Reverend Alphy Alderton from Series 5 through 9. Netflix currently has seasons 1-4 (as of late April 2026).
The village of Grantchester, sitting on the River Cam just south of Cambridge, was famously immortalized in Rupert Brooke's 1912 poem “The Old Vicarage, Grantchester.” The series is filmed partly on location in and around Cambridge, with additional filming in Hertfordshire. Each series is set in the late 1950s to early 1960s and draws on period detail including the social tensions of post-war England, the early civil rights movement, and changing attitudes toward homosexuality.
Knives Out
American production – but with Daniel Craig in the lead, we're including it anyway.
Netflix doesn't carry Rian Johnson's original 2019 Knives Out – but it does have the two follow-ups starring Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc, a drawling Southern gentleman detective of ambiguous employ. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022) relocates Blanc to a Greek island billionaire's compound, with a cast including Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kate Hudson, Dave Bautista, and Kathryn Hahn.
Wake Up Dead Man (2025) is the third installment, relocating Blanc to a small Catholic church in upstate New York where a divisive monsignor (Josh Brolin) turns up dead on Good Friday and suspicion falls on an earnest young priest played by Josh O'Connor; the supporting cast also includes Glenn Close, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Andrew Scott, and Kerry Washington.
Both films follow Johnson's approach of treating each entry as a standalone mystery rather than a traditional sequel, with an entirely new setting, cast of suspects, and central puzzle each time. Craig's Blanc is the through-line: a detective in the tradition of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, transplanted into contemporary settings. The original Knives Out, set in a Massachusetts mansion following the death of a crime novelist (Christopher Plummer), is worth tracking down separately for full context
The Woman in Cabin 10
Ruth Ware's 2016 thriller, The Woman in Cabin 10, sold over a million copies in its first year. Keira Knightley plays Lo Blacklock, a travel journalist who witnesses a woman pushed overboard from a luxury superyacht on a charity voyage to Norway – only to be told that all passengers are accounted for and the adjacent cabin has been empty all along. Directed by Simon Stone (The Dig), with a screenplay co-written by Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse.
The ensemble cast includes Guy Pearce, Hannah Waddingham, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Kaya Scodelario, and David Morrissey. Filming took place on England's Isle of Portland in Dorset and aboard the real superyacht Savannah, one of the world's first hybrid-propulsion yachts, launched in 2015.
Given that a second Lo Blacklock novel, The Woman in Suite 11, was released in July 2025, it's entirely possible we could see a follow-up at some point – but nothing has been announced so far.
How to Get to Heaven From Belfast
Irish production – included for its shared British Isles sensibility.
An eight-episode comedy thriller created by Lisa McGee, who also wrote Derry Girls, and produced by Hat Trick Productions – the same team behind that earlier series. Stars Roísín Gallagher, Sinéad Keenan, and Caoilfhionn Dunne as three Belfast women in their late thirties who travel to County Donegal when an estranged former schoolfriend turns up dead – and then apparently not dead.
Michelle Fairley, Emmett J. Scanlan, Bronagh Gallagher, and Saoirse-Monica Jackson (who played Erin in Derry Girls) appear in supporting roles. The story spans locations including Donegal, Dublin, and Portugal. A nod to McGee's previous work appears in the final episode, which features the Derry Girls mural in Derry city. The series was released on Netflix in February 2026. No word yet on a second season.
Black Doves
A six-episode spy thriller set in London during the Christmas season, produced by Working Title Television for Netflix and created by Joe Barton (Giri/Haji). Keira Knightley plays Helen, a professional assassin operating undercover as the personal assistant to a senior British government minister, and Ben Whishaw plays Sam, a fixer and her oldest friend who is dispatched to protect her after her secret lover is murdered.
The Christmas setting gave production designer Lina Kutsovskaya and the cinematography team extensive use of London's holiday lighting across the city's varied neighborhoods, from Mayfair to Soho. The series drew on the espionage tradition of John le Carré, with a focus on the bureaucratic and personal loyalties of intelligence work rather than action-film spectacle. Released December 2024 – and a second season is expected in late 2026 or potentially 2027 (official date not yet announced).
Bodies
Based on Si Spencer's 2015 DC Vertigo graphic novel, this eight-episode Netflix series unfolds across four time periods – 1890, 1941, 2023, and 2053 – each featuring a different detective who discovers the same unidentified body in the same East London alleyway. The four leads are Amaka Okafor, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, Shira Haas, and Kyle Soller, with each era given a visually distinct style.
Paul Tomalin adapted the graphic novel for the screen. Director Marco Kreuzpaintner worked with separate cinematographers for each time period to reinforce the distinctions between eras. Filming took place across various London locations, with the recurring alleyway serving as a physical throughline across all four storylines. The series was released in October 2023.
Bodkin
Irish production – included for its shared British Isles sensibility.
A seven-episode dark comedy mystery set in a fictional small town on the west coast of Ireland, created by Jez Scharf and produced for Netflix by Barack and Michelle Obama's production company Higher Ground. Will Forte plays Gilbert Power, an American true crime podcaster who arrives in the village of Bodkin to investigate a decades-old triple disappearance, joined by Irish journalist Emmy Sizergh (Siobhán Cullen) and researcher Dove (David Wilmot).
The series blends the true crime podcast boom – and its frequent collision with tight-knit communities hostile to outside scrutiny – with a West of Ireland setting steeped in local folklore and old grievances. Filming took place in County Cork. The first season was released on Netflix in May 2024, with a second season in production.
Run Away
Another entry in Harlan Coben's long-running Netflix UK adaptation series, based on his 2019 novel and written by Danny Brocklehurst, who also wrote Fool Me Once. James Nesbitt – who previously led Coben's Missing You – plays Simon Greene, an investment banker whose drug-addicted daughter Paige (Ellie de Lange) has cut off contact with the family. When he tracks her down in a city park, a confrontation turns violent and she vanishes again, drawing him deeper into a criminal underworld.
Ruth Jones plays Elena Ravenscroft, a private investigator working a parallel missing persons case; the supporting cast includes Minnie Driver, Alfred Enoch, and Lucian Msamati. Filmed in Manchester and across the northwest of England, the eight-episode series premiered on January 1, 2026 — the same New Year's Day launch slot used for Missing You and Fool Me Once.
