Best Cosy Crime Dramas For Your Next Comfort Watch
By
2 weeks ago
Seven box sets to know
It may sound like an oxymoron, but cosy crime is a burgeoning genre. There’s a reason Richard Osman is one of the UK’s best-selling authors right now: his 2020 novel The Thursday Murder Club is a masterful example of the genre. But a long legacy comes before him, helmed by the Queen of Crime herself, Agatha Christie. She reached acclaim for her masterfully plotted sleuth novels and closed-circle mysteries, especially those centering on Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot.
While it has ebbed and flowed in popularity, this genre has never disappeared entirely; The Thursday Murder Club and its sequels merely shook awake our insatiable appetite for the whodunnit style of the 1920s and 30s golden age of detective fiction. Think amateur sleuths cracking intricate puzzles with intellect rather than grit, all backdropped by an often bucolic, tight-knit community (with a limited number of suspects).
Such amateur sleuths often take the form of nosy village busybodies, retired academics or eccentric outsiders who somehow outsmart the police (worth suspending your disbelief here), while a key facet of keeping things ‘cosy’ is that there’s no blood or gore and all murders are cleanly executed offstage. The puzzle element, meanwhile, is both plot device and brainteaser: authors leave breadcrumb trails for readers to solve the case alongside their detective protagonists.
It makes perfect sense then that this genre is just as successful on the screen as it is on TV. Looking for your next comfort watch? We’ve gathered the very best cosy crime dramas below.
Midsomer Murders (1997–present)
An utter classic of the genre running for almost three decades, ITV’s Midsomer Murders pioneered many of the characteristics of the modern cosy crime drama: a bucolic English backdrop pierced by seemingly incongruous violence, often in quirky or convoluted ways, like a woman being bludgeoned with a wheel of cheese. There’s a palpable nostalgia for 50s Britain and its hermetic rural villages, making this one popular among an older crowd or those craving a simpler life. John Nettles led the first 13 series as DCI Tom Barnaby, before Neil Dudgeon took on the leading role as his younger cousin DCI John Barnaby from series 14 onwards. ITVX
Death Valley (2025–present)
Compared to Midsomer Murders, Death Valley is a new kid on the cosy crime block. It launched in 2025 to immediate rave reviews and returned for a second series in May 2026. Set in the Welsh countryside, a disarmingly friendly cop, DS Janie Mallowan (Gwyneth Keyworth), joins forces with her favourite actor, the eccentric John Chapel (Timothy Spall), to crack local cases. And why not, since John Chapel was once the star of a hit detective TV show called Caesar? The beautiful Welsh countryside is a bonus character to boot. BBC iPlayer
Bookish (2025–present)
Another new kid on the block is Bookish. Created by, written by and starring Mark Gatiss as an antiquarian bookseller and part-time detective, it premiered in summer 2025, and a second series is on the way. Set in the 1940s, there’s that same nostalgia for 20th-century English life, but this time we’re in the capital. Gabriel Book (Gatiss) has a storied past, having delved into a world of espionage and secrets during WWII, and now his shop Book’s Books is a cosy front for his continuing career as an expert detective. Expect baffling murders and pleasing puzzles throughout. Now TV
![DI Geordie Keating [Robson Green] in Grantchester](https://www.countryandtownhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/embargoed_until_12th_december_grantchester_9_ep1_11_0-455x683.jpg)
Grantchester (2014–present)
Grantchester is another modern classic of the genre, whisking us back to the titular sleepy Cambridgeshire village during the 1950s. There we meet Anglican vicar and former Scots Guards officer Sidney Chambers (James Norton), who helps the overworked local Detective Inspector Geordie Keating (Robson Green) crack the crimes rocking the village. From series 4, new Reverend William Davenport (Tom Brittney) takes over, followed by Reverend Alphy Kotteram (Rishi Nair) from series 9. ITVX
Ludwig (2024–present)
Another newcomer is Ludwig, which viewers immediately flocked to when it first landed on the BBC in 2024. Led by David Mitchell as reclusive puzzle maker John Mitchell (who publishes puzzle books under the pen name ‘Ludwig’), this detective dramedy is backdropped by beautiful Cambridge and all the dark academia that comes with an ancient university town. When John’s identical twin brother James, a detective chief inspector in the local police force, goes missing, John is suddenly faced with a real-life puzzle to solve. With two more series in the works, this is a boat to jump on ASAP. BBC iPlayer
A Taste For Murder (2026)
Murder with a dash of escapism? Sign us up. Helmed by Warren Brown as the widowed DCI Joe Mottram grieving his late wife at her family’s home in Capri, A Taste for Murder commences with a crime when the detective least expects it. He is trying to reconnect with his grieving teenage daughter Angelica (Beau Gadsdon) when a British tourist turns up dead at the foot of an iconic landmark. And when one of Joe’s in-laws seems to be implicated in the crime, the off-duty police officer’s curiosity transforms into a desperate need to solve the case. ITVX
Patience (2025–present)
Viewers loved this cosy crime drama when it first aired in 2025, backdropped by York but based on a Belgian series. A second series has since aired, with a third in the pipeline, slated to land in early 2027. We centre on the titular character played by Ella Maisy Purvis, an autistic civilian worker in the Police Criminal Records Office pulled into crime solving thanks to her hyperlexia (an incredible auditory and visual memory). Meanwhile, Patience navigates love for the first time, interpersonal changes at work, and ever-trickier cases to untangle. Channel 4
Murder Before Evensong (2025)
Reverend Richard Coles has lived many lives, from popstar to priest to cosy crime author. Following the trail blazed by parish drama Granchester, Coles’s 2022 debut novel Murder Before Evensong was an instant hit. A six-part TV adaptation was created shortly afterwards, starring Harry Potter alum Matthew Lewis as Canon Daniel Clement, a rector who finds himself entangled in a police investigation when the cousin of his church’s patron is discovered fatally wounded by a pair of secateurs. Channel 5
Magpie Murders (2022)
A crime hidden in the pages of a novel? Magpie Murders, based on Anthony Horowitz’s novel of the same name, is almost like wish fulfilment for cosy crime lovers. Originally airing in 2022 and followed up by Moonflower Murders and Marble Hall Murders, this trilogy centres on editor Susan Ryeland (Lesley Manville), who sets about solving a murder with the help of an unfinished manuscript. A story within a story, the action flips between Susan’s reality and the drama of author Alan Conway’s Atticus Pünd’s novels, with Tim McMullan playing the role of the detective in Susan’s imagination. BBC iPlayer
Towards Zero (2025)
In 2025, the BBC aired the three-part Towards Zero with its ensemble cast. Anjelica Huston, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Ella Lily Hyland, Mimi Keene, Jackie Clune, Grace Doherty, Jack Farthing, Clarke Peters, Anjana Vasan and Matthew Rhys all star, taking on Christie’s 1944 novel of the same name. Set on the south coast of England in the 1930s, we centre on recently divorced tennis player Nevile Strange (Jackson-Cohen), holidaying at the home of his aristocratic aunt Camilla, Lady Tressilian (Huston) with his new wife Kay (Keene). But, with unfinished business to settle, Nevile also controversially invites his ex-wife and fellow tennis star Audrey (Hyland), too.
Murder Is Easy (2023)
British star David Jonsson was recently revealed to be the lead in Ryan Coogler’s upcoming movie Black Panther 3 after the tragic death of Chadwick Boseman in 2020; Jonsson will play his character’s son. You might recognise him from Industry, Rye Lane (2023) or Alien: Romulus (2024), but it was in 2023 that he became the first Black lead in an Agatha Christie adaptation. Murder is Easy aired between Christmas and the New Year in 2023, with Jonsson taking on the role of Luke Fitzwilliam, who meets Miss Pinkerton (Penelope Wilton) on a train to London in 1954. She asks him what time Scotland Yard closes, for she has a murder to report. There is a killer on the loose in her sleepy English village of Wychwood under Ashe, she tells him. But then she shows up dead. Now convinced by her claims, Fitzwilliam travels to Wychwood to investigate, where he meets the locals. Everyone believes the deaths were accidents, but Fitzwilliam feels he must find the killer before they can strike again. BBC iPlayer
McDonald & Dodds (2020–2024)
Taking its lead from Midsomer Murders, McDonald & Dodds moves cosy crime into the 21st century, Centering on the titular crime-fighting duo – DCI Lauren McDonald (Tala Gouveia) and DS Dodds (Jason Watkins) – in Bath, who head up the Avon and Somerset Police’s criminal investigation department. The USP is young meets old: McDonald is a streetwise former Met Police investigator, while Dodds is shy and modest and hasn’t seen street action in more than a decade. With a slew of stellar guest stars – including Joanna Scanlan, Hugh Dennis, Rob Brydon, Martin Kemp and more – each episode sees our leads crack a puzzling murder case, from mysterious murder-robberies to a hot air balloon fatality. ITVX
Marlow Murder Club (2024–present)
Hopping on the cosy crime train in 2024 is The Marlow Murder Club, which is based on Death in Paradise writer Robert Thorogood’s series of novels set in the real English town of Marlow, Buckinghamshire. Here, following a brutal double murder, three locals form a loose club to investigate the case – not unlike another popular cosy crime novel we know… They are retired archaeologist turned crossword setter Judith Potts (Samantha Bond), professional dog walker Suzie Harris (Jo Martin), and music industry executive turned vicar’s wife Becks Starling (Cara Horgan). While DS Tanika Malik (Natalie Dew) leads the official police response, she quickly realises this trio is surprisingly apt at case cracking. U
