Rustin Cohle
Matthew McConaughey in True Detective (season one)

Would you like some nihilism with your policing? Framed by the increasingly rattled responses of his partner, Woody Harrelson’s Marty Hart, Matthew McConaughey’s Louisiana State Police Detective is a solemn truth-seeker who has surrendered to his cold-hearted pessimism. “I think human consciousness is a tragic misstep,” is a long way from Kojak’s “who loves ya, baby”, but in the midst of a horror-tinged crime epic and the lofty ambitions of creator Nic Pizzolatto, Cohle’s existential monologues are the just-right calling card for this anthology’s debut season. This is the anti-hero detective taken to the limit, and the role resonates.
Streaming: Binge

Frank Columbo
Peter Falk in Columbo

Rumpled, discursive and deceptively eccentric, Columbo was just the protagonist for a 1970s update of the murder mystery. With the perpetrator revealed in the preamble – a howcatchem, as opposed to a whodunit – you could watch Columbo sort through the evidence, eye off the suspects and corner his quarry. Working for the Los Angeles Police Department, Columbo was a blue-collar public servant often outwitting the high and mighty – “just one more thing,” he would say, before unearthing an incriminating detail. Falk inhabited the role, emphasising brains over brawn – Columbo rarely bothered to carry a gun.
Streaming: Amazon Prime

Vic Mackey
Michael Chiklis in The Shield

The dirty cop had long been part of police dramas, usually depicted as a lone rotten apple who gets their comeuppance, but Shawn Ryan’s propulsive crime drama changed the rules in 2002 by making corrupt task force leader Vic Mackey the centre, both narratively and emotionally, of the show. Mackey and his crew treat their Los Angeles district like an occupying army, extorting tribute from criminals and dispensing vigilante justice. That Mackey’s a loving family man capable of executing colleagues he’s soured on is an accommodation The Shield embraces and Michael Chiklis embodies. He reveals the entire orchard is rotten.
Streaming: Currently not available

Frank Pembleton
Andre Braugher in Homicide: Life on the Street

If this was a list of the funniest television cops, the late, great Andre Braugher would be on it for the deadpan delights of Captain Raymond Holt in Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Three decades ago, Braugher raised the bar for police dramas with his stunning portrayal of Frank Pembleton, a brilliant Baltimore homicide detective who pursued his job with frightening intensity and a bruised sense of faith. Magnetic among a gifted ensemble cast, with a voice that mesmerised suspects and the audience alike, Braugher made Pembleton unlike any detective television had seen in 1993. It’s the same today.
Streaming: Currently not available

Jack Regan
John Thaw in The Sweeney

Police series were about the good guys catching the bad guys, at least until 1975 when this British crime drama crashed onto the screen and audiences were captivated by John Thaw’s street-savvy detective inspector. Hungover, armed and quick to break the rules to close a case, Jack Regan of the Flying Squad (rhyming slang: Sweeney Todd) was a good guy who resembled the bad guys a little too much. With Dennis Waterman as his offsider, George Carter, the working-class Regan would refuse bribes but frame a suspect if they didn’t cooperate. He’s patient zero for every flawed copper since then.
Streaming: Currently not available

Andy Sipowicz
Dennis Franz in NYPD Blue

Short-sleeve shirts, even shorter temper. When NYPD Blue debuted in 1993 it was intended as a showcase for David Caruso’s coolly charismatic Manhattan police detective, John Kelly. The balding, barking Andy Sipowicz was his loyal partner and NYPD traditionalist – that is, often drunk, occasionally racist. But Caruso soon quit the show for the movies, and creators Steven Bochco and David Milch realised what they had with Dennis Franz as Sipowicz. The program thrived as Sipowicz wrestled with his failings, and although the writers couldn’t resist torturing Sipowicz with grieving loss, he was the heart and soul of a groundbreaking drama.
Streaming: Disney+

Jay Swan
Aaron Pedersen and Mark Coles Smith in Mystery Road

A character so compelling that two actors have been able to illustrate him – Aaron Pedersen for two seasons of the ABC’s outback crime mystery, then Mark Coles Smith in the prequel Origin – Jay Swan is an Aboriginal police detective who resides in seemingly untenable spaces. Often shunned by his community and his colleagues alike, Swan is trying to solve contemporary crimes on land where historic wrongs have never been atoned for. Pain and perseverance are intertwined in Pedersen’s defining performance, which is shot through with stoic restraint.
Streaming: ABC iview, AMC+ (season 1) Stan (season 2)

Jane Tennison
Helen Mirren in Prime Suspect

The efforts of female police officers to break through in an aggressively male environment had informed shows since the early 1980s (shout out to Cagney & Lacey), but the 1991 arrival of Lynda La Plante’s gripping procedural put them into vividly sharp focus. The first female detective chief inspector in London’s Metropolitan Police, Jane Tennison has to fight to lead her team, let alone solve a case. Mirren’s nuanced performance takes in every facet of the character. There’s ambition, and wilful drive, but also blind spots and an understanding of her femininity. Seven mini-series over 15 years made for a long-form epic.
Streaming: BritBox

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