There must be a gritty TV series with realistic characters that I haven’t seen yet!!!

[TheChristmasElf]

DH is away with work, the children are all plugged into devices, my wine is poured but I have absolutely nothing to watch!!

I love gritty, atmospheric crime dramas with realistic characters that pull you in, I dislike fantasy, dystopian, period or Sci-fi plots or anything where the characters are more placed to look pretty than to pull you in…

Some things I’ve enjoyed over the last few years…

Happy Valley
Craith/Hidden
Sharp Objects
Man Hunt
The light in the Hall
The Fall
Dublin Murders
True Detective
The Red Riding Trilogy
Snow Angels
Hinterland

Help a lady out with great TV with similar plots as the above.

Marcella
The Replacement
Broadchurch
Line of Duty
Happy Valley
The Fall

I loved all of these!

You've probably found something now but that series on Sky with Lenny James is really good. Can't remember the name but he wears a yellow puffa jacket the whole way through

Olivia Kitteridge

Save Me?

Fortitude
Spiral (French)
The Killing

@midsomermurderess Yes! Thanks.

And realise that a PP said that above 🤦🏻‍♀️

Prime suspect & Cracker Itv hub

The Shield
Manhunt

Another vote for Slow Horses.
Gary Oldman is just perfect for me as Lamb. Brilliant series, wonderfully done and with a touch of humour thrown in.

The Shield, as mentioned above, is marvellous. Better than the Wire to my mind. You need a bit of a lie down after every episode though, nerve shredding stuff.

Ooh thanks for this! Have read the book and been looking for something to watch!

No Offence is brilliant but actually a spoof of a police procedural so crosses over into black comedy rather than just being straightforward gritty crime drama

Genuinely one of the best shows I've ever seen but the trauma/slow burn psychological horror of the last few episodes is both jaw dropping and something I don't have the stomach to sit through again. Epic.

Succession is brilliant - slick corporate drama with plenty of amazingly awful characters you love to hate. The crime is very much of the white collar variety but it’s stylish and gripping, with fantastic theme music!

The Bay

I agree. I watched it years ago but still think about those episodes sometimes. It's one of those shows that never leaves you.

Slow Horses on appletv

Surprised no one's mentioned Sherwood. It's excellent, can find it on the iplayer.

Contemporary set police drama about a murder that takes place in a former mining village and the resentments that still exist from the strike days.

Have you tried 'Big Sky' on Disney +?

Spiral
The Killing (Danish version)
The Bridge (Swedish/Danish version)
Top of the Lake

These all fit the bill I think and are some of the best I've seen.