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Unmissable crime dramas

If you’re looking for your latest crime telly fix, then look no further! Here's our guide to five of the most watchable crime dramas on TV right now.

 

Anatomy of a Scandal, Netflix

Netflix’s much-anticipated adaptation of Sarah Vaughan’s international bestseller Anatomy of a Scandal will hit small screens just in time for a perfect Bank Holiday Binge (aka 15th April). This timely political thriller explores consent, privilege and power play in the hallowed halls of Westminster, as MP James Whitehouse (played by Homeland’s Rupert Friend) is accused of raping his parliamentary aide, with whom he’s been having an affair. The story unfolds from the perspectives of his wife Sophie, played by Sienna Miller, and prosecuting barrister Kate, Downton Abbey’s Michelle Dockery. 

 

Our House, ITV

Line of Duty’s Martin Compston leads the stellar cast in ITV’s 4 part adaptation of Louise Candlish’s award-winning novel Our House. Candlish shot to bestseller-dom with this 2018 novel, winning Best Crime Novel of the Year at the British Book Awards, amongst numerous other accolades. Set in a leafy South London suburb, the twists come thick and fast in this unbelievably tense thriller which opens with a woman returning home to find another family moving into her house, which she didn’t sell, and her husband and children missing. This is edge of your seat stuff (with interior decor to DIE for!), coming to screens very soon…

 

Kevin Can Go F*** Himself, Amazon Prime

This show is difficult to describe but that’s also what makes it so great. It’s a completely unique approach to crime TV, creating a kind of drama/sitcom mash-up that is totally addictive. It follows Allison, long-suffering wife to beer-chugging, ‘fun-loving’ Kevin, who spends the majority of his time scheming with his childhood pal, Neil. So far, so sitcom. But there’s a split perspective to this show that happens whenever Allison is away from Kevin, showing her in a completely different and more authentic light – and she is not a fan of Kevin. Not at all. It’s partly shot as a sitcom, with a multiple-camera setup and canned laughter, and partly as a drama. We won’t say any more (spoilers) but this show is hilarious, heart-breaking, tense, and highly-recommended. Catch up on series 1 on Amazon Prime.  

 

Yellowjackets, Sky Atlantic/NowTV

A plane carrying a group of soccer players to the national championships crash lands in the middle of the Canadian wilderness – and the teenage girls somehow manage to survive for nineteen months. Twenty-five years later, the survivors are the only ones who really know what happened out there. There are people who will do anything to get the truth out of them, but you can’t survive the wilderness without becoming a little wild yourself – and it quickly becomes clear that everyone involved would do well to watch their back. Filled with nineties nostalgia, part coming-of-age, part survival story/supernatural horror, this is an exceptional series that will leave you desperate to know how those girls were really able to survive . . . Series 2 is underway but series 1 is available now on Sky Atlantic/Now TV.

 

The Boys, Amazon Prime

What’s not to love about a group of superheroes who turn out to be more evil than the villains they’re fighting?! While this is violent, bloody and definitely not for the faint-hearted, it is a hell of a lot of fun. Subversive and witty, there’s a general vibe that, in this world, not even your favourite characters are safe, resulting in plot-turns that will make your head spin. Series 3 is set for release on Amazon Prime in June 2022 – you can catch the first two series on that platform, too.

Anatomy of a Scandal

Now a major Netflix series

THE WORD-OF-MOUTH SENSATION
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
A RICHARD & JUDY BOOKCLUB SELECTION

NOW A NUMBER ONE NETFLIX SERIES

'Timely and compelling' Shari Lapena
'Impressive' The Times
'Gripping' Observer
'Sensational’ Clare Mackintosh


A high-profile marriage thrust into the spotlight.

A prosecutor who believes justice has been a long time coming. 


A scandal that will rock Westminster.

And the women caught at the heart of it.


Praise for Anatomy of a Scandal:

'Magnificent' Marian Keyes

'Intelligent, subtle and thought-provoking' Louise Candlish

'The definition of a page-turner' Elizabeth Day

'Almost impossible to put down' Louise O’Neill

'Once the trial of MP James Whitehouse starts, you could not have prised the book from hands for love or money' Jake Kerridge, Sunday Express

'An absolute masterpiece – prepare to be very impressed' heat

'A lot of reviews claim that a novel has them ‘hooked from the start’ – but with this story, it’s painfully true' Grazia

‘A timely thriller about marriage, but also about power, who wields it, and how that affects who we believe’ Stylist

‘Well-written, pacy and full of twists and turns’  Independent


'New Netflix series lays bare the toxic privilege of those in power… Friend’s performance is eerily plausible. His Whitehouse is charismatic and smoothly persuasive, his eloquence barely concealing his arrogance… Equally strong is Miller as Sophie, who is forced for the first time to examine her own cosseted way of life and the principles she has sacrificed to preserve it' Financial Times

'This drama will immediately entire fans of House of Cards, Apple Tree Yard and The Undoing…. Miller is excellent as the elegant, brittle Sophie, who is forced to watch her beautifully organised house fall out of order, the heart of a drama that manages to feel both aesthetically glossy and morally gritty' Sunday Times Culture
 
'Feels like it could have been ripped from the headlines' Evening Standard
 
'A cautionary tale for our times' Daily Telegraph

**OUT NOW: REPUTATION, THE THRILLING AND TIMELY NEW NOVEL FROM SARAH VAUGHAN**

Our House

Now a major ITV series starring Martin Compston and Tuppence Middleton


'The last line will make you literally shout with shock' Good Housekeeping
'Terrifically twisty ... hooks from the first page' Sunday Times

On a bright morning in the London suburbs, a family moves into the house they’ve just bought on Trinity Avenue.
Nothing strange about that. Except it's your house. And you didn’t sell it.

FOR BETTER, FOR WORSE.
When Fi Lawson arrives home to find strangers moving into her house, she is plunged into terror and confusion. She and her husband Bram have owned their home on Trinity Avenue for years and have no intention of selling. How can this other family possibly think the house is theirs? And why has Bram disappeared when she needs him most?

FOR RICHER, FOR POORER.
Bram has made a catastrophic mistake and now he is paying. Unable to see his wife, his children or his home, he has nothing left but to settle scores. As the nightmare takes grip, both Bram and Fi try to make sense of the events that led to a devastating crime. What has he hidden from her – and what has she hidden from him? And will either survive the chilling truth – that there are far worse things you can lose than your house? 

TILL DEATH US DO PART.

Praise for Our House:

'If 2018 brings a better book than Our House I will eat my hat. Addictive, twisty and oh so terrifyingly possible’ Clare Mackintosh

‘I raced through it this weekend. Such a smart idea. Twisty, warped, credible. Brilliantly plotted and compelling. Deserves to be such a hit’ Sarah Vaughan

‘Louise Candlish is a great writer;she inhaled me into her nightmarish world where everything we think we know is ripped from under our feet’ Fiona Barton

''A masterfully plotted, compulsive page-turner' Guardian 

'Keeps you guessing to the end - and beyond' Stylist

'Whip-smart, knowing and brilliantly plotted' India Knight

'A corker' Evening Standard

'Terrific premise' New York Times

'Wonderfully plotted' Jane Garvey, Woman's Hour

'A blood pressure-raising thriller' Red

‘Gripping and heartbreaking with an undercurrent of unease running through it’ Louise Jensen

‘What a book! Fast, edge-of-your-seat stuff. Each time I set the book down I had to remind myself to breathe’ broadbeanbooks

‘Oh Louise Candlish, you are a genius! Our House is just brilliant. Scarily believable with the BEST ending I have read in a long time. I devoured it!’ Claire Frost, Fabulous magazine