New British TV Crime Series for 2023: Detective Dramas, Murder ... - Den of Geek

Blind Spot (Channel 5, tbc)

After 15 years, Eastenders actor Ross Kemp makes his return to TV drama thanks to this four-part Channel 5 thriller, in which he'll play police detective Tony Warden. Blind Spot tells the story of Hannah (newcomer Beth Alsbury) who works monitoring CCTV on a troubled council estate. When a woman goes missing, Hannah tells Detective Warden she saw her being led to a CCTV blind spot on the estate by a violent criminal, but Warden dismisses her. prompting Hannah to take matters into her own hands and put her own life in danger in a bid to uncover the truth about what happened. Blind Spot will also star Sanditon's Crystal Clarke, Sue Vincent (Waterloo Road) and Line of Duty's Kiran Landa.

Boat Story (BBC, tbc)

From the team behind The Missing, Baptiste and The Tourist, this new six-part BBC crime thriller will see two hard-up strangers (played by Back To Life's Daisy Haggard and Vigil's Paterson Joseph) stumble upon a literal boatload of cocaine in a shipwreck, and decide to sell it and split the cash. The pair end up stuck between an intense police investigation and a vengeful gangster known as 'The Tailor' (Tcheky Karyo, Baptiste), trying desperately to escape both. 

The Boat Story cast also includes Joanna Scanlan (The Light In The Hall), Phil Daniels (EastEnders) and Craig Fairbrass (Villain), and promises to be a fiendishly clever, edge-of-your-seat ride. Filming took place in Yorkshire in late 2022.

Bodies (Netflix, tbc)

A crime procedural with a twist, Bodies follows four London detectives in different time periods – the late-Victorian reign of Jack The Ripper, The Blitz, the modern day and even the distant future – who find themselves investigating the same murder, and uncovering a 150-year-old conspiracy. 

Based on Si Spencer's 2015 graphic novel of the same name, the eight-part Netflix series will star Kyle Soller (Andor), Shira Haas (Unorthodox), Amaka Okafor (The Sandman) and The Great's Jacob Fortune-Lloyd as the four detectives, with Stephen Graham also playing a central role. Filming wrapped in Hull back in October 2022, so we shouldn't have long to wait to enjoy this twisty time-travelling tale.

Criminal Record (Apple TV+, tbc)

Streaming service Apple TV+ is currently dishing out some excellent dramas – and if its other London-based thriller Slow Horses is anything to go by, Criminal Record will be well worth your time. Doctor Who and The Devil's Hour's Peter Capaldi will star as weathered DI Daniel Hegarty alongside The Good Wife's Cush Jumbo as rookie DS June Lenker, an unlikely pairing who are forced to team up on a cold case after receiving a mysterious anonymous phone call.