NoBadPicks

Shows Like Dempsey and Makepeace

If you loved Dempsey and Makepeace's Action & Adventure and Drama storytelling, these series deliver a similar experience — chosen for tone, narrative quality, and viewer satisfaction. Each includes where to stream it now.

Top Picks

Danger Man
7.3

Danger Man

1960

Danger Man is a British television series which was broadcast between 1960 and 1962, and again between 1964 and 1968. The series featured Patrick McGoohan as secret agent John Drake. Ralph Smart created the programme and wrote many of the scripts. Danger Man was financed by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment.

The Mod Squad
6.2

The Mod Squad

1968

The Mod Squad was the enormously successful groundbreaking "hippie" undercover cop show that ran on ABC from September 24, 1968, until August 23, 1973. It starred Michael Cole as Pete Cochren, Peggy Lipton as Julie Barnes, Clarence Williams III as Linc Hayes, and Tige Andrews as Captain Adam Greer. The executive producers of the series were Aaron Spelling and Danny Thomas. The iconic counter-culture police series earned six Emmy nominations, four Golden Globe nominations plus one win for Peggy Lipton, one Directors Guild of America award, and four Logies. In 1997 the episode "Mother of Sorrow" was ranked #95 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.

WWE Superstars
7.3

WWE Superstars

2009

WWE Superstars is a professional wrestling television program produced by WWE that originally aired on WGN America in the United States. It debuted on April 16, 2009 and ended its domestic broadcasting on April 7, 2011. After the final domestic TV broadcast the show moved to an internet broadcast format while maintaining a traditional television broadcast in international markets. The show features mid-to-low card WWE superstars and divas, in a format similar to the former show WWE Heat which served the same purpose. Big names such as John Cena and Randy Orton previously appeared on the show at its beginning. The show also previously featured talent from the now-defunct ECW brand.

The New Avengers
7.0

The New Avengers

1976

The New Avengers is a British secret agent fantasy adventure television series broadcast during 1976 and 1977. It is a sequel to the 1960s series The Avengers and was developed by Albert Fennell and Brian Clemens. A joint United Kingdom-France-Canada production, the show picks up the adventures of John Steed and his team of Avengers fighting evil plots and world domination. Whereas in the original series Steed had almost always been partnered with a woman, in the new series he had two partners: Mike Gambit, a top agent, crack marksman and trained martial artist, and Purdey, a former trainee with The Royal Ballet who was an amalgam of many of the best talents from Steed's previous female partners.

The Sweeney
7.9

The Sweeney

1975

Jack Regan, an unethical officer of the Flying Squad, uses unorthodox methods to pursue criminals with the help of his partner, George Carter.

Hunter
7.1

Hunter

1984

Hunter is an American police drama television series created by Frank Lupo, and starring Fred Dryer as Sgt. Rick Hunter and Stepfanie Kramer as Sgt. Dee Dee McCall, which ran on NBC from 1984 to 1991. However, Kramer left after the sixth season to pursue other acting and musical opportunities. In the seventh season, Hunter partnered with two different women officers. The titular character, Sgt. Rick Hunter, was a wily, physically imposing, and often rule-breaking homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. The show's main characters, Hunter and McCall, resolve many of their cases by shooting dead the perpetrators. The show's executive producer during the first season was Stephen J. Cannell, whose company produced the series.

S.W.A.T.
7.0

S.W.A.T.

1975

S.W.A.T. is an American action/crime drama series about the adventures of a Special Weapons And Tactics team operating in an unidentified California city. A spin-off of The Rookies, the series aired on ABC from February 1975 to April 1976. Like The Rookies, S.W.A.T. was produced by Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg.

WWE NXT
6.8

WWE NXT

2010

Wrestlers will portray heroes or villains as they follow a series of events that build tension and culminate in a wrestling match or series of matches.

More Shows Like Dempsey and Makepeace

Scarecrow and Mrs. King
6.5

Scarecrow and Mrs. King

1983

Scarecrow and Mrs. King is an American television series that aired from October 3, 1983, to May 28, 1987 on CBS. The show stars Kate Jackson and Bruce Boxleitner as divorced housewife Amanda King and top-level "Agency" operative Lee Stetson who begin a strange association, and eventual romance, after encountering one another in a train station.

Lethal Weapon
7.3

Lethal Weapon

2016

A slightly unhinged former Navy SEAL lands a job as a police officer in Los Angeles where he's partnered with a veteran detective trying to keep maintain a low stress level in his life.

Chosen
6.8

Chosen

2013

Ian Mitchell is a lawyer and father who one day receives a box containing a gun and a picture of a stranger, along with instructions to kill the pictured person. He is subsequently attacked by another stranger, and discovers that he has been chosen by a mysterious organization known as The Watchers to participate in a lethal game.

The Unit
7.3

The Unit

2006

A covert team of special forces operatives risk their lives on undercover missions around the globe, while their wives maintain the homefront, protecting their husbands' secrets.

The Day of the Jackal
8.2

The Day of the Jackal

2024

An unrivalled and highly elusive lone assassin, the Jackal, makes his living carrying out hits for the highest fee. But following his latest kill, he meets his match in a tenacious British intelligence officer who starts to track down the Jackal in a thrilling cat-and-mouse chase across Europe, leaving destruction in its wake.

The Hardy Boys / Nancy Drew Mysteries
7.1

The Hardy Boys / Nancy Drew Mysteries

1977

The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries is a television series which aired for three seasons on ABC. The series starred Parker Stevenson and Shaun Cassidy as amateur sleuth brothers Frank and Joe Hardy, respectively, and Pamela Sue Martin as girl detective Nancy Drew. The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries was unusual in that it often dealt with the characters individually, in an almost anthological style. That is, some episodes featured only the Hardy Boys and others only Nancy Drew.

Mannix
6.7

Mannix

1967

Mannix is an American television detective series that ran from 1967 through 1975 on CBS. Created by Richard Levinson and William Link and developed by executive producer Bruce Geller, the title character, Joe Mannix, is a private investigator. He is played by Mike Connors. Mannix was the last series produced by Desilu Productions.

The Take
7.5

The Take

2009

Freddie Jackson is released from prison in 1984 having served a four-year sentence for armed robbery. His wife Jackie, who has been waiting for him on the outside in the mistaken belief that that he wants to go straight, soon finds herself disappointed: Freddie is in fact raring to get back into the game and has set his sights on becoming top dog in the East End underworld.

WWE ECW
6.6

WWE ECW

2006

ECW was a professional wrestling television program for WWE, based on the independent Extreme Championship Wrestling promotion that lasted from 1992 to 2001. The show's name also referred to the ECW brand, in which WWE employees were assigned to work and perform, complementary to WWE's other brands, Raw and SmackDown. It debuted on June 13, 2006 on Sci Fi in the United States and ran for close to four years until it aired its final episode on February 16, 2010 on the rebranded Syfy. It was replaced the following week with WWE NXT.

The Terminal List: Dark Wolf
7.5

The Terminal List: Dark Wolf

2025

Before The Terminal List, Navy SEAL Ben Edwards finds himself entangled in the black operations side of the CIA. The deeper Ben goes into the 'gray', the harder it will become to not give himself over to his darker impulses. Every man has two wolves inside him – light and dark – fighting for control. Which wolf will Ben Edwards feed?

Drive
6.1

Drive

2007

An American action drama television series set against the backdrop of an illegal cross-country automobile road race, focusing on the willing and unwilling competitors and, as the plot develops, the unseen puppet masters who sponsor the race.

Emergency!
7.9

Emergency!

1972

The crew of Los Angeles County Fire Department Station 51, particularly the paramedic team, and Rampart Hospital respond to emergencies in their operating area.

Why These Shows Are Similar

These recommendations share core qualities with Dempsey and Makepeace (1985): Action & Adventure and Drama themes, similar pacing, and comparable production quality. NoBadPicks uses TMDB collaborative filtering, genre matching, and AI analysis to surface series most likely to resonate with fans of Dempsey and Makepeace.

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