Best female TV detectives - from Vera and Happy Valley to True Detective
When it comes to great TV detectives, the women give the men a run for their money. The latest actress to try her hand at crime-fighting is Jodie Foster, who plays Liz Danvers in Sky's True Detective: Night Country.
But while her budding FBI agent Clarice Starling was a hit in The Silence of the Lambs, Jodie, 61, faces a tough fight to be top of the TV cops too. She's up against some of telly's most arresting female detectives. Here is the Mirror's top TV law enforce-hers. Have we missed your favourite? Let us know in the comments.
Jane Tennison, Prime Suspect
The cast of Lynda's award-winning television series Prime Suspect featuring Helen Mirren (ITV)Years Active: 1991-2006
Name TV show Helen Mirren's Tennison collared criminals while battling against institutionalized sexism. Tenacious and talented, our Jane claws up the ranks to Detective Chief Inspector, proving she's as tough as nails and a razor-sharp interrogator. Killer Line: "I like to be called Governor or The Boss. "I don't like Ma'am - I'm not the bloody Queen!" "
Vera Stanhope, Vera
Brenda Blethyn plays DCI Vera Stanhope in the ITV drama, Vera (ITV)Years Active: 2011- present
Tragedy as 13-month-old boy dies after the stolen car he was in crashed
Brenda Blethyn's blunt DCI Vera never tires of cracking cases - and works her patch in Northumberland like a modern day Miss Marple. And she's earned our respect as ITV's longest-running female detective. Following the recent conclusion of Vera thirteenth series, we've got our fingers crossed for its return. Secret Weapon: Presumably that distinctive hat is Vera's lucky charm. It disarms the suspects - for who would guess such a clever mind is under such a silly hat?
Patricia Routledge as Hetty Wainthropp in Hetty Wainthropp Investigates (BBC)
Sofie Gråbøl as Sarah Lund in The Killing (BBC/DR (Danmarks Radio))Hetty Wainthropp Investigates
Years Active: 1996 - 1998
Hetty (Patricia Routledge) wakes up on her 60th birthday and decides to become a private investigator. Married to supportive husband Geoffrey, this housewifeturned-supersleuth mixes down-toearth honest and common sense with a big dose of humour. Killer Line: "There may be times to have negative thinking, Geoffrey, but this isn't one of them."
Sarah Lund, The Killing
Years Active: 2007 - 2012
Sofie Gråbol's Sarah is an obsessive who will stop at nothing to get to the bottom of Copenhagen crime - and always in a practical chunky knit. She single-mindedly unravels brutal murders while dealing with police office politics. She was Nordic noir at its best - cool, calm, clever and with superwoman powers of perception. Killer Line: "You didn't look properly."
Rosemary & Thyme
Felicy Kendal as Rosemary Boxer and Pam Ferris as Laura Thyme (Carnival Films)Years Active: 2003 - 2007
Duo Felicity Kendal and Pam Ferris are excellent gardeners - and detectives, Rosemary Boxer and Laura Thyme. While doing their day jobs, they cant help being drawn into solving mysterious crimes as they overhear secrets and dig up clues to catch criminals. Secret Weapon: Their green fingers give them the perfect cover for hiding in the bushes, spying on the neighbours.
Cagney & Lacey
(The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images)Years Active: 1982- 1988
They might be partners at NYPD's 14th precinct, but Christine Cagney (Sharon Gless) and Mary Beth Lacey (Tyne Daly) lead very different lives. But as true friends, they help each other battle their professional and personal crises. Mixing the buddy cop blueprint with streetwise feminism - groundbreaking for its time - this crime-fighting duo will always have a special place in our hearts. Killer Line: "At least we took a little inch of crud off the city."
Jessica Fletcher, Murder She Wrote
Years Active: 1984- 1996
Outrage as abandoned baby found in pram on beach, with mum off for a coffee
Angela Lansbury's Jessica was an amateur sleuth way before it became trendy. A widowed mystery writer living in the fictional town of Cabot Cove, Maine, she fights crime all over America as well as pushing back against ageism and sexism. Jessica is both compassionate yet canny in dealing with the know-it-all misguided men she frequently encounters. Angela sadly passed away last year but a new film version is said to be in the works. Killer Line: "Now, I may be wrong, But frankly, I doubt it."
Angela Lansbury starred as mystery writer and super sleuth Jessica Fletcher on Murder, She Wrote (CBS via Getty Images)
Stephanie Turner in Juliet BravoJean Darblay, Juliet Bravo
Played by Stephanie Turner, Jean Darblay is the first female inspector at a small Lancashire police station. So while fighting crime - using her radio call sign Juliet Bravo - she must also battle the prejudices of her male officers who are unable to fathom having a female Boss. In 1983, Anna Carteret's Insp Kate Longton took over the station, until the final series in 1985. Secret Weapon: Plenty of Northern grit that secures her respect and admiration
Kima, The Wire
Years Active: 2002 -2008
Baltimore detective. Shakima "Kima" Greggs (Sonja Sohn) is loyal and works by the letter of THE LAW. She's a whizz at surveillance and recruiting informants and holds her own against the likes of Dominic West's Det Jimmy McNulty in the iconic US drug cop drama. Killer Line: "How complex a code can it be if these knuckleheads are using it?"
Award winning Gillian Anderson plays Stella Gibson in The Fall (TV Grab)Stella Gibson, The Fall
Years Active: 2013 - 2016
Gillian Anderson played one of them most iconic detectives of the 20th century - The X Files' Dana Scully. But it was when she left her Mulder for chilly Belfast, that she really excelled as the troubled but hardnosed Det Supt Gibson. She escaped her dogged and singleminded pursuit of serial killer Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan) with barely a ruffle on her signature silk blouse, and proved herself one of the hardest cops in Northern Ireland. Killer Line: "Maleness is a kind of birth defect."
Catherine Cawood, Happy Valley
(PA)Years Active: 2014 - 2023
Sarah Lancashire's strong-willed Sgt Cawood spent three series (and nine years) chasing down her deadly nemesis Tommy Lee Royce in West Yorkshire's Calder Valley. There was nothing happy about it... except the TV bosses' faces at the viewing figures perhaps. Her bolshy manner, good humour and one-liners, made this manhunt one of mustwatch shows on television. Killer Line: "I don't take sh** off anybody no more, I say it like it is, and I know who I am."
Watch Jodie Foster in True Detective: Night Country is airing every Monday on Sky Atlantic/NOW
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