An ITV series that fans keep rewatching is now streaming for free and boasts an impressive 97% Rotten Tomatoes score
‘Incredible’ detective series ‘better than Vera’ now streaming for free(Image: ITV)
Fans of Vera looking for their next bingeable detective series need look no further.
Back in 2011, ITV’s crime drama Scott & Bailey aired on screens, starring beloved actors Suranne Jones and Lesley Sharp as DC Rachel Bailey and DC Janet Scott.
Written by Happy Valley creator Sally Wainwright, the show followed the personal and professional lives of the two coppers, who are both members of the Syndicate Nine Major Incident Team (MIT) of the fictional Manchester Metropolitan Police.
An instant hit, Scott & Bailey, which attracted around seven million viewers per episode, aired for five series, before ending in 2016 – much to the heartbreak of the show’s loyal legion of fans.
The series also boasted a star-studded cast, made up of Suranne, Lesley, Amelia Bullmore, Nicholas Gleaves, Danny Miller and Pippa Haywood. And over the years, Scott & Bailey garnered several award nominations during its run, including a BAFTA TV Award nomination for Best Drama Series in both 2012 and 2013.
The programme also bagged rave reviews and boasts an impressive 97 percent Rotten Tomatoes score. “Finished Scott and Bailey. What a brilliant series!” declared one person on a Reddit thread.
Someone else said: “I thought it was phenomenal, same writer as Happy Valley, if you liked that you’ll like S&B.” A third chimed in: “Much better than other cop shops like Vera.”
Another wrote: “I’m watching it for a second time and I still don’t want it to end.” A fifth said: “One of my all-time favorites, I loved the friendship between them.”
In 2016, lead star Suranne spoke about the decision to end Scott & Bailey. She told Radio Times: “We said we weren’t going to do another one last series, and then when ITV said, ‘Would you like to do another one?
“We kind of thought [why not], because there’s been quite a break between the last one and this one. And then I said, ‘Oh I’d quite like to produce as well,’ so they said yes come along and do that. So the whole thing was a goodbye in a sense.”
“We were going to do a short thing, I was going to produce, and be properly on the team, because I’ve always put my nose in.”
Scott & Bailey is available to watch on ITVX