5 unmissable mystery drama series we can’t wait to binge-watch

Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson are set to lead Apple TV+’s upcoming thriller, Down Cemetery Road, which is based on the book series from Slow Horses author Mick Herron.

As a Slow Horses fan, I’m particularly looking forward to this one. If the series stays faithful to the original material, viewers are in for a treat!

While Emma plays struggling Oxford private eye Zoë Boehm, Ruth Wilson takes on the role of Sarah Tucker, who becomes “obsessed with the whereabouts of a child she believes to have gone missing”.

The synopsis reads: “When a house explodes in a quiet Oxford suburb and a girl disappears in the aftermath, neighbour Sarah Tucker becomes obsessed with finding her and enlists the help of private investigator Zoë Boehm. Zoë and Sarah suddenly find themselves in a complex conspiracy that reveals that people long believed dead are still among the living, while the living are fast joining the dead.”

A release date has yet to be announced.

Elizabeth George’s bestselling mystery novels are getting the small-screen treatment by the BBC. The upcoming contemporary adaptation will star Leo Suter (Vikings: Valhalla) and Sofia Barclay (Ted Lasso) as the unconventional detective duo DI Tommy Lynley and DS Barbara Havers.

So, what can viewers expect?

The new series follows”brilliant” police detective Tommy Lynley, who is an outsider in the force “simply by virtue of his aristocratic upbringing”, according to the synopsis. 

It continues: “He is paired with Barbara Havers, a sergeant with a maverick attitude and a working-class background. With seemingly nothing in common and against all odds, the mismatched duo of Lynley and Havers become a formidable team, bonded by their desire to see justice done.”

Also starring in the drama are Daniel Mays (Magpie Murders), Niamh Walsh (The English Game), Michael Workeye (My Lady Jane) and Joshua Sher (Vera).

While a release date has yet to be announced, we’d expect the series to arrive on our screens later this year. 

This one is for Agatha Christie fans. Netflix is adapting the Queen of Crime’s 1929 novel, The Seven Dials Mystery, which is set to star EE BAFTA Rising Star winner Mia McKenna-Bruce as fizzingly inquisitive sleuth, Lady Eileen ‘Bundle’ Brent.

The 1925-set series, penned by Broadchurch creator Chris Chibnall, is set in a lavish English country house, where a practical joke appears to have gone murderously wrong. It’s down to Bundle to uncover the chilling plot that will change her life and crack the mystery wide open. 

Helena Bonham Carter (One Life, Nolly) also stars in the series, alongside Martin Freeman (The Responder, Black Panther), Edward Bluemel (My Lady Jane, Killing Eve) and Corey Mylchreest (Queen Charlotte). 

The series comes to Netflix this year. 

Richard Rankin (Outlander) is back as Edinburgh-based Detective Sergeant John Rebus in the upcoming second season of Rebus, which is based on the best-selling books by Ian Rankin.

Season two follows DS Rebus as he explores “the links between violent criminals involved in the drug trade in Edinburgh and the professional bourgeois world of law and finance, where police sometimes fear to tread,” according to the synopsis. 

While a release date for series two has yet to be announced, fans can binge-watch all six episodes of season one on BBC iPlayer now. 

Another returning show we can’t wait for is UKTV’s reboot series, Bergerac, which stars Damien Molony as Jersey-based detective Jim Bergerac.

Based on the original BBC show starring John Nettles, the reimagining follows the talented detective as he solves murder cases on the idyllic Channel Island. 

In season two, Jim Bergerac is starting to put his life back together and is tentatively dating, while his mother-in-law, Charlie Hungerford, has a new man in her life. 

But when Jim meets Nicola, a visitor to Jersey, they strike up a connection. Could this be the start of something for Jim? 

The synopsis continues: “However, before the relationship even has time to blossom, Jim is pulled back into his next big case. When the groom at a wedding reception on the island is found murdered in his hotel room, the wedding party comes under intense suspicion and scrutiny. 

“Jim will have to decipher the victim’s cryptic last words from his speech if he is ever going to bring the killer to justice. And when Jim starts to unravel old secrets, more skeletons come to light, making this his most intricate case yet.”

A release date has yet to be confirmed.