Happy Valley

Series Similar to Happy Valley

If you enjoyed Happy Valley, these series share similar themes, tone, and quality. Each recommendation is scored on genre overlap, tonal match, and critical acclaim.

1. Cold Case

   2003 · Drama, Crime · ended99% match

   Recommended for similar Crime profile, highly rated (8).

   Cold Case is a drama about Lilly Rush, an enigmatic and highly effective detective on the Philadelphia Homicide Squad. Rush's instinctive understanding of the criminal mind and her singular passion for uncovering the truth makes her the perfect fit for investigating cold cases, yester-crimes that have remained unsolved - some only a few months old, others going back decades. Rush and her team use their wits to take on aging evidence and witnesses with buried secrets, uncovering fresh clues, digging into old wounds and doggedly pursuing the truth.

2. River

   2015 · Drama, Crime · ended99% match

   Recommended for similar Crime profile, highly rated (8), also on BBC One.

   Respected police officer John River, a gifted cop with a troubled mind, struggles to come to terms with the recent loss of a close colleague, and chases a potential suspect across London - with tragic consequences. Now at odds with authorities both within and outside of the police service, River finds himself in a precarious position as he seeks to bring closure to the mother of murdered teenager Erin Fielding, who blames him for failing to keep his promise to bring her daughter back alive. Police crime drama, starring Stellan Skarsgard.

3. Thorne

   2010 · Drama, Crime · ended99% match

   Recommended for similar Crime profile, highly rated (8), hidden gem.

   Thorne, a television drama series which debuted on Sky1 in the UK on 10 October 2010, is based on crime writer Mark Billingham's novels. The series stars David Morrissey in the title role of Detective Inspector Tom Thorne, and includes Aidan Gillen, Eddie Marsan, and Natascha McElhone as supporting cast members.

4. The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies

   2014 · Drama, Crime · ended99% match

   Recommended for similar Crime profile, highly rated (8), hidden gem.

   This drama tells the real-life story of retired schoolteacher Christopher Jefferies who was initially questioned by police as a suspect in the murder of Jo Yeates who rented a flat from him. He was vilified by the press, partly on account of his eccentric appearance and long flowing hair, even after he had been released on bail by the police.

5. Gangland Undercover

   2015 · Drama, Crime · ended99% match

   Recommended for similar Crime profile, highly rated (8.1).

   The only man brave enough to sneak into three outlaw biker gangs and live to tell the tale, Charles Falco, author of "Vagos, Mongols and Outlaws", goes from convict to infiltrator as he secretly documents the Vagos' illegal activities and ultimately brings them to justice. With the real Charles Falco starting each episode in a silhouetted interview, his story is brought to life in this fact-based docudrama series that sees Falco work as an informant for the Feds on a covert mission inside the dangerous Vagos' world of violence, murder and drug trafficking. Having climbed the gang's ranks while facilitating 62 arrests, Charles Falco exposes how he crippled the criminal enterprise from the core of the biker underworld in this mind-blowing true story, Gangland Undercover.

6. Banished

   2015 · Drama, Crime · ended99% match

   Recommended for similar Crime profile, highly rated (8).

   At its heart, Banished is a story of survival. Though it is set in the stark historical reality of the founding of the penal colony in Australia in 1788 after the arrival of the First Fleet, it is not the story of Australia and how it came to be. Rather, it is a tale of love, faith, justice and morality played out on an epic scale in a confined community where the stakes are literally life and death.

7. Boardwalk Empire

   2010 · Drama, Crime · ended97% match

   Recommended for similar Crime profile, highly rated (8.4).

   As the country struggles to cope with the Great Depression and the end of Prohibition looms, Nucky Thompson looks to legitimize himself through alliances with liquor producers, while rivals Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky seek to consolidate their power in the wake of Arnold Rothstein's death and eliminate all competition - by any means necessary on Boardwalk Empire.

8. Rectify

   2013 · Drama, Crime · ended97% match

   Recommended for similar Crime profile, highly rated (8).

   Rectify is a haunting story of a man released from prison after spending nearly two decades on death row.

9. Silk

   2011 · Drama, Crime, Legal · ended97% match

   Recommended for similar Crime profile, highly rated (8), hidden gem, also on BBC One.

   Series about life at the Bar, the dilemmas and problems that modern day barristers have to face, and what it means to become a silk.

10. Appropriate Adult

    2011 · Drama, Crime · ended97% match

    Recommended for similar Crime profile, highly rated (8).

    Dramatisation of the case of serial killers Fred and Rose West, focusing on the way in which they were brought to justice.