It’s been a while since we took a look at the offerings on U — now it’s time to introduce five more crime shows you can watch for free
If you’re a fan of crime, and cozy crime in particular, the good news is there’s plenty to stream without subscription. Yes, there are adverts, and yes the shows are online later than on the relevant streamer (and sometimes several series behind), but with a wide range of titles, you probably won’t notice the absence. UKTV’s streaming service U has regular new arrivals (and some shows do leave), and you’d be hard pressed to run out of options.
Here are five more crime shows worth considering, presented in alphabetical order. Most are from Acorn TV, so readers with a subscription to their service can already see these. Others may have been shown on other services. Two are historical, three are set in the southern hemisphere, one in the Mediterranean, with only one based in the UK — sadly, crime really is always with us and everywhere we go.
Darby and Joan
First up a road trip with a dose of crime and backstory secrets set in Australia. The title gives away the lead characters (retired Detective Jack Darby played by Bryan Brown, and English nurse Joan Kirkhope played by Greta Scacchi). Joan is recently widowed and confused — her husband was meant otherwise be in Spain, instead was found dead in Australia? What secrets lie in wait for Joan as she follows up any clue. On the way, she bumps into (literally) retired policeman Jack and a road trip ensues.
If the crime of the week element can be a little lightweight at times, it’s a great study of two characters slowly becoming fond of each other, learning secrets and solving a mystery. It also looks great and not just for the inevitable sunny beaches at Christmas.
There are two series totalling fourteen episodes.
Miss Scarlet (and the Duke)
Kate Phillips plays Eliza Scarlet, daughter of Henry Scarlet, a private detective in Victorian London. She inherits the business, cuing up the inevitable not a suitable job for a woman comments throughout. First off, kudos to the concept of a detective named Miss Scarlet. Then well done not making this a female Sherlock Holmes storyline, but a mix of political comment on female emancipation, a well-produced Victorian London (shot in Dublin), and glimpses into social history. Add a range of underworld contacts (such as Moses, played by Ansu Kabia), rival private detective Patrick Nash (Felix Scott) and others, it’s just left to explain “the Duke”.
Scotland Yard DI William Wellington (Stuart Martin) is known as “the Duke”, and was a childhood friend of Eliza’s. There’s an obvious will they / won’t they riff playing across the first three seasons, and there, sadly, UKTV viewers have to wait. There are two more series to come, not yet arrived on UKTV. By series five, the Duke has left the show, and the name changes to Miss Scarlet. There’s still eighteen episodes of well-constructed drama to watch, so do dig in.
Recipes for Love and Murder
If you’ve ever wondered why there aren’t more cookery based detectives, or are old enough to feel reminiscent for Pie in the Sky (also on UKTV), take a look at Acorn TV’s Recipes for Love & Murder. Starring Maria Doyle Kennedy, it is described as:
Mystery drama based on Sally Andrew’s best-selling novels about a newspaper cookery columnist called Tannie Maria, who lives in a close-knit South African town in the beautiful region of the Karoo.
The style is somewhere between comic and serious, with Scottish Tannie having taken over the advice column on the local paper to protect her cookery column. She soon spots human stories behind the letters she receives and then clues to murders. She is aided and abetted by Detective Khaya Meyer (Tony Kgoroge). Tannie also has secrets connected to her past in Scotland — she would have kept hidden, had events not taken the matter out of her hands.
So far, there are two series, with all eighteen episodes available on UKTV.
Signora Volpe
Off to Italy for another Acorn TV series, this time it’s Signora Volpe (far more exotic sounding than Mrs Fox) in which Emilia Fox plays Sylvia Fox, MI6 agent who decides to give up her job and move to Italy, where her sister Isabel (Tara Fitzgerald) lives. Of course, Sylvia is soon dragged into some local mysteries and her past life insists on not leaving her alone either.
The setting is fabulous on screen, and it’s a region of Italy where just about everyone speaks good English. Add a growing relationship with local law enforcement Capitano Riva (Giovanni Cirfiera), a range of locals, the odd other relative turning up here and there, plenty of good weather and food all bringing escapist television at its finest.
Series one consists of three feature-length episodes, two consists of three stories split into two parts each. That’s the biggest complaint — there’s nowhere near enough of this absorbing drama.
The Doctor Blake Mysteries
Most recently arrived on UKTV is The Doctor Blake Mysteries. It’s another Australian show, and historical — the series stars Craig McLachlan as Dr Lucien Blake, who returns home to Ballarat, northwest of Melbourne, in the late 1950s to take over his late father’s general medical practice and role as police surgeon after an absence of 30 years. He carries the scars of World War II — he’d studied in Scotland, served in the Far East, married and had a child with a Chinese woman and lost the both in the fall of Singapore.
Not only is he dark and brooding, he also doesn’t rush to fit in with the town he’d left decades ago. The series as a whole is somewhat grittier than the other in this article, and follows the common idea of a pathologist helping solve crime.
All five series are available to stream, totalling some forty-two episodes. There are actually forty-four episodes — for some reason, UKTV doesn’t yet have the tenth episodes of series 1 or 2. This may well get rectified.