The appetite for real-life crime series has exploded over the past two decades.
Adaptations of factual dramas are not a new concept to audiences, but they have grown in popularity on both television and streaming services, including Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
Over the past two decades, viewers have been gripped by shows exploring real-life criminal events and the police’s investigations that followed. So, we have listed seven series that are worth a watch, including Des, which aired on ITV in 2020.
David Tennant portrays notorious serial killer Dennis Nilsen in the chilling three-part series that follows the arrest and trial of the Scottish murderer who killed boys and young men in London throughout the 1970s and 80s.
View 8 ImagesDavid Tennant stars as the killer serial killer in ITV’s Des(Image: ITV)
Nilsen would meet and befriend his victims before offering food or lodgings for the evening back at his North London flat – he would then go on to kill them.
His evil reign ended when the foul odour of the rotting corpses in Nilsen’s home began to ring alarm bells among his neighbours, and the body parts blocked local plumbing.
He confessed to his crimes after his arrest, which led the police to open a huge investigation in order to find out who the victims were and get justice. Nilsen was jailed for life in 1983 and was serving his sentence in Full Sutton Prison, Yorkshire, when he died in 2018.
Des is available to stream on ITVX and Netflix.
View 8 ImagesTV fans have praised the Netflix miniseries (Image: Beth Dubber/Netflix)
Unbelievable tells the story of teenager Marie Adler, an 18-year-old who filed a report claiming she had been raped at knifepoint in 2008. But police detectives and those closest to her doubted her claim, and Adler later retracted her story, telling the police she had lied.
While Adler, played by Kaitlyn Dever in the series, went through this terrible ordeal, hundreds of miles away, detectives Grace Rasmussen (Toni Collette) and Karen Duvall (Merritt Wever) met while investigating an eerily similar pair of intruder rapes, and partnered up to catch what they suspected was a serial rapist.
The eight episodes have been inspired by real events in The Marshall Project and ProPublica’s Pulitzer Prize-winning article, “An Unbelievable Story of Rape”, by T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong, as featured in the This American Life radio episode “Anatomy of Doubt”.
The series has earned a rare 98% on Rotten Tomatoes. One viewer said, “What is most shocking about Unbelievable is entirely based on true events”, while another chimed in, “Unbelievable is the best, most human, most complex police procedural I’ve seen in a long, long time.”
Originally released on Netflix in September 2019, all eight episodes of the series are available on the streaming service.
View 8 ImagesMartin Clunes as DCI Colin Sutton in the series Manhunt
Former police detective Colin Sutton caught notorious killer Levi Bellfield following the murders of women in London, and Manhunt explores exactly how he did it.
The BAFTA-nominated police procedural drama has two series, the first looking at the hunt for serial killer Levi Bellfield from West London, and the second focusing on efforts to catch serial rapist Delroy Grant in South London.
DCI Sutton was a senior investigating officer in the Met Police between January 2003 and January 2011, leading more than 30 successful murder investigations, notably the Amélie Delagrange murder case.
The French student was visiting the UK when she was murdered at Twickenham Green, London, while walking home following a night out with friends. She was found in the park on the evening of August 19, 2004, with serious head injuries, and died in the hospital the same night.
Sutton, played by Martin Clunes in the ITV series, was immediately assigned to the murder case and dedicated himself to catching Amélie’s murderer. With the help of his team, he solved the cases of Amélie and Marsha McDonnell, both of whom were brutally killed by Levi Bellfield.
The Manhunt series is adapted from Colin Sutton’s book of the same name, and originally aired in 2019. You can stream the series now on ITVX.
View 8 ImagesITV’s drama The Lost Honor of Christopher Jefferies is based on a real-life case.(Image: ITV)
The dangers of trial by media are laid bare in ITV’s drama The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies, based on a real-life case.
At the time of his arrest in 2010, Christopher Jefferies (played by Jason Watkins in the ITV drama) was an ex-English teacher and landlord who lived alone, and was arrested on suspicion of murdering a female tenant, Joanna Yeates.
Bristol-based landscape artist and missing person Joanna was discovered dead on Christmas Day 2010, and it was soon revealed that she had been murdered. Both police and the tabloid press initially appeared to suspect Yeates’ “eccentric” landlord, Jefferies, who lived in a separate flat in the same building in Bristol.
The press were quick to focus on his appearance and deem his behaviour “strange,” hounding him even after his bail was granted.
Christopher Jefferies was released without charge, and another of his tenants, Dutch engineer Vincent Tabak, was ultimately convicted of Joanna Yeates’ murder.
The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies originally aired on ITV in the UK over two consecutive nights, with Part 1 premiering on December 10, 2014.
“I am speechless…what a movie”, wrote one viewer on IMDb, while another simply dubbed the show a “great drama”.
The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies is available to stream on Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video.
View 8 ImagesMatt Stokoe as Raoul Moat in the ITV series (Image: ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
True crime drama, The Hunt for Raoul Moat, tells the story of Britain’s biggest manhunt, which took place in 2010 after Moat shot three people just days after being released from prison.
On July 1, 2010, the 37-year-old former bodybuilder was released from prison, and two days later, he went to a house in Gateshead where his ex-girlfriend and mother of his daughter, Samantha Stobbart, and her new partner, Christopher Brown, were staying.
It was here that Moat shot Brown at close range with a shotgun and killed him. He also fired into the building, wounding Stobbart in the arm and abdomen. Her wounds were not fatal, and she survived. He also shot PC David Rathband twice in the face.
The three-part mini-series focuses on the three innocent victims of Moat’s horrific crimes, played by Matt Stokoe in the drama: Christopher Brown (Josef Davies), Samantha Stobbart (Sally Messham), and PC David Rathband (Dan Renton Skinner).
The plot is also focused on the police officers who put themselves in the firing line in their quest to capture Moat, and the local journalist who sought to tell Moat’s real story.
The Hunt for Raoul Moat originally aired in April 2023 on ITV and is available to stream on ITVX.
View 8 ImagesLuke Evans stars in The Pembrokeshire Murders
The Pembrokeshire Murders, which originally aired on ITV in 2021 before being added to Netflix in December 2024.
In 1985, brother and sister Richard and Helen Thomas were fatally shot, and four years later, in 1989, Peter and Gwenda Dixon were shot at point-blank range while they were walking along the coastal path in Pembrokeshire.
The police were dumbfounded by the murders, only knowing that it was the work of a serial killer, as the same shotgun had been used on both occasions. It wasn’t until 2006 that Detective Superintendent Steve Wilkins reopened the Thomas and Dixon double murder cases that serial killer John Cooper was caught.
Starring as the lead detective himself is actor Luke Evans, while the notorious killer Cooper is played by Robin Hood and The Body Farm actor Keith Allen, who is also singer Lily Allen’s dad.
The Pembrokeshire Murders is available to watch on ITVX.
View 8 ImagesViewers praised Stephen Graham for his role as Dave Kelly in the ITV series(Image: ITV)
Little Boy Blue follows a family left devastated by the murder of 11-year-old Rhys Jones on a Liverpool estate in 2007, and the subsequent investigation that was launched to find his killer.
Rhys was a young Everton fan who loved football. He was walking home from football training on 22 August 2007 when he was shot and fatally wounded in the car park of a pub on Liverpool’s Croxteth Park estate.
Paramedics and staff at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital battled for 90 minutes to save Rhys, but he was pronounced dead at 8.46pm.
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Detective Superintendent Dave Kelly is played by Stephen Graham in the four-part series, who led the investigation into Rhys Jones’s murder.
Little Boy Blue is available to watch on ITVX and Amazon Prime Video.