5 New Historical Detective TV Series to Watch After 'Young Sherlock', Ranked by RT
These projects tell about detectives who catch criminals without the help of cell phones or CCTV cameras.
Guy Ritchie's Young Sherlock isn't the Holmes we're used to – at 19 years old, he's not yet the cold analyst we know, but rather a daring young man who ends up in prison and working as a laborer in Oxford.
If you've finished all the episodes and want to watch other detective stories set in the past, this list is for you.
5. 'Agatha Christie's Seven Dials', 2026
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 71%
1925, Eileen Brent lives with her mother, Lady Caterham, in a country mansion. Due to financial difficulties, the family home is regularly rented out, forcing Eileen to cope with the situation.
One morning, one of the guests is found dead. Frustrated by the police's inactivity, Eileen investigates the case herself and uncovers a secret society called Seven Dials.
The case implicates representatives of the British establishment and Foreign Office employees.
4. 'Dept. Q', 2025-...
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%
Detective Carl Morck returns to work after a tragic incident left his partner paralyzed and another officer dead. As a form of punishment, he is transferred to a new cold case unit called Dept. Q, which is located in the basement of the Edinburgh Police Station.
The unit's first case is the four-year-old disappearance of prosecutor Merritt Lingard, who vanished while on a ferry. The investigation leads the team to uncover dark secrets and corruption reaching the highest levels of government.
3. 'The Law According to Lidia Poët', 2023-2026
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 89%
Lidia Poët is a young and daring woman living in late 19th-century Turin. She finds herself expelled from her profession immediately after a triumphant start to her career. An appeals court ruling bars her from practicing law simply because she is a woman.
However, Lidia refuses to play by others' rules. While working at her brother Enrico's firm, she continues to investigate complex criminal cases in secret, unable to appear in court.
In the third season, Lidia's struggle continues as she takes on the most complex crimes, uncovers the social contradictions of her time, and fights for her right to practice law.
2. 'The Artful Dodger', 2023-...
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%
In the first season, Jack Dawkins, a former pickpocket and character from Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist who was once known as the Dodger, unexpectedly revealed himself to be a talented surgeon.
However, the reappearance of his former mentor, Fagin, who still thinks in terms of street scams, forced Jack to engage in a dangerous double life, combining medical practice with criminal activities.
In the second season, the situation escalated when a killer appeared in the city trying to frame Jack. To save himself, Jack was forced to turn to Fagin's dubious methods once again.
1. 'Bookish', 2025-...
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%
The show follows Gabriel Book, an eccentric bookstore owner who occasionally assists the police in solving complex cases. Set in 1946, the man is forced to conceal information about his personal life.
Book generously offers a job at his bookstore to a small-time con man who becomes his assistant and expert on old books and complex crimes.
Gradually, the show reveals itself to be an intimate, retro detective story with Mark Gatiss' distinctly personal touch. The showrunner clearly isn't trying to replicate the scale and eccentricity of Sherlock, but rather to captivate the viewers with a detective story and the spirit of the times.
