Shows Like Scott & Bailey
If you loved Scott & Bailey's Crime 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

Vexed
Comedy drama following a mismatched pair of police officers who disagree on everything with their partner, from policing to their personal life.

No Offence
Keeping these streets clean is a Herculean task, enough to demoralize even the keenest rookie – but there’s a reason why this hotchpotch of committed cops are on this force, on this side of town. Drug labs, arsonists, neo-Nazis and notorious murderers are all in a day’s work for this close-knit team, led by the dizzyingly capable but unquestionably unhinged DI Vivienne Deering. But when a particularly twisted serial killer emerges it leaves even the most hardened of these seasoned coppers reeling.

Vera
A sharp detective with a messy life, DCI Vera Stanhope patrols her “patch” of northeast England, pursuing the truth in cases of murder, kidnapping, and blackmail. Vera is obsessive about her work and faces the world with caustic wit, guile and courage.

Prime Suspect
Highly skilled Detective Inspector Jane Tennison battles to prove herself in a male dominated world.

Marcella
Marcella is shocked to the core of her being when her husband Jason leaves her unexpectedly, confessing he no longer loves her. Heartbroken, Marcella returns to the Met’s Murder Squad. Ten years ago Marcella gave up her fast-tracked police career to marry and devote her life to her family. With the abrupt end to her marriage and isolated from her 13 year old daughter and 10 year old son, Marcella throws herself into work to stop herself from falling apart.

The Inspector Lynley Mysteries
DS Barbara Havers is assigned to work with the upper-crust DI Thomas Lynley to solve murders.

Rizzoli & Isles
Perhaps their strikingly different personalities make the relationship between detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles so effective. Jane, the only female cop in Boston's homicide division, is tough, relentless and rarely lets her guard down, while the impeccably dressed Maura displays a sometimes icy temperament — she is, after all, more comfortable among the dead than the living. Together, the best friends have forged a quirky and supportive relationship; they drop the protective shield in each other's company, and combine their expertise to solve Boston's most complex cases.

Shades of Blue
Sexy New York detective and single mother Harlee Santos fell in with a tight-knit group of dirty cops, taking bribes and protection money that she uses to provide the best life for her honest, talented daughter. But when she's trapped by the FBI and forced to inform on her own "brothers," she'll have to walk the fine line between love, loyalty, honor and betrayal, and try to keep it together for her daughter's future.
More Shows Like Scott & Bailey

McDonald & Dodds
Two detectives, DCI McDonald and DS Dodds, who seemingly have nothing in common, are thrown together and forge a rumbustious friendship and entertaining partnership.

The Bill
The daily lives of the men and women at Sun Hill Police Station as they fight crime on the streets of London. From bomb threats to armed robbery and drug raids to the routine demands of policing this ground-breaking series focuses as much on crime as it does on the personal lives of its characters.

Lewis
Inspector Robert Lewis and Sergeant James Hathaway solve the tough cases that the learned inhabitants of Oxford throw at them.

Dalziel & Pascoe
British crime drama based on the "Dalziel and Pascoe" series of books by Reginald Hill, set in the fictional Yorkshire town of Wetherton. The unlikely duo of politically incorrect elephant-in-a-china-shop-copper Detective Superintendent Andrew Dalziel (pronounced Dee-ell) and his more sensitive and university educated sidekick Detective Sargent, later Detective Inspector, Peter Pascoe is always on hand to solve the classic murder mystery, while maintaining a down to earth wit and humour.

Women's Murder Club
Women's Murder Club was an American police procedural and legal drama. Longtime friends involved in homicide investigations gather to work off the clock to solve cases. District Attorney Jill has issues with her past, medical examiner Claire is dealing with a husband newly in a wheelchair, and tough Detective Lindsay suddenly finds herself working under her ex-husband. Despite personal issues, they allow young reporter Cindy to join their "club."

L.A.'s Finest
Syd Burnett has left her complicated past behind to become an LAPD detective. Paired with a new partner, Nancy McKenna, a working mom with an equally complex past, Syd is pushed to examine whether her unapologetic lifestyle might be masking a greater personal secret. These two women don't agree on much, but they find common ground when it comes to taking on the most dangerous criminals in Los Angeles.

The Coroner
High-flying solicitor Jane Kennedy returns to the seaside town she left as a teenager to take up the post of coroner, becoming an advocate for the dead as she investigates sudden, violent or unexplained deaths.

The Good Guys
Once upon the 1970s, Dan Stark and his partner, Frank Savage, were big-shot Dallas detectives. So big, in fact, that they were lauded as American heroes after saving the Governor's son. Thirty years later, Dan Stark is a washed-up detective who spends most of his time drunk or re-hashing his glory days. Dan's new partner, Jack Bailey, is an ambitious, by-the-book and overall good detective, but is sometimes a bit too snarky for his own good. His habit of undermining himself has earned him a dead-end position in the department, and he is stuck solving annoying petty theft cases that nobody else wants. Worse, he's been given the thankless task of babysitting Dan, the drunk pariah who can never keep partners for long.

Hill Street Blues
A realistic glimpse into the daily lives of the officers and detectives at an urban police station.

The Closer
Deputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson transfers from Atlanta to LA to head up a special unit of the LAPD that handles sensitive, high-profile murder cases. Johnson's quirky personality and hard-nosed approach often rubs her colleagues the wrong way, but her reputation as one of the world's best interrogator eventually wins over even her toughest critics.

Midsomer Murders
The peacefulness of the Midsomer community is shattered by violent crimes, suspects are placed under suspicion, and it is up to a veteran DCI and his young sergeant to calmly and diligently eliminate the innocent and ruthlessly pursue the guilty.

Law & Order: UK
Adapted from the hit US series, Law & Order: UK follows a team of police detectives and prosecutors representing the public interest in the criminal justice system.
Why These Shows Are Similar
These recommendations share core qualities with Scott & Bailey (2011): Crime 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 Scott & Bailey.
See full details for Scott & Bailey (2011)