From 2011 to 2016, Scott & Bailey delighted audiences with a mix of police procedural and dark humor. The series stars Suranne Jones, Lesley Sharp, Amelia Bullmore, Nicholas Gleaves, Danny Miller, and Pippa Haywood. Detectives Janet Scott (played by Sharp) and Rachel Bailey (played by Jones) investigate crimes while dealing with their own personal problems. Both characters are members of the Syndicate Nine Major Incident Team (MIT) of the fictional Manchester Metropolitan Police. I liked the mix of cases Scott & Bailey investigate. Sometimes, the women’s personal problems threaten to dominate the action, but fortunately professionalism always brings them back to Reality. Both women are flawed, but their toughness manages to overcome their myriad of problems.
If you’re looking for an excellent series with strong women characters, Scott & Bailey delivers. Many PBS stations broadcast this series. It’s also available on AMAZON Prime if you’d rather not buy the DVDs. GRADE: A
I have been trying to see these online for years. No DVD, so no boxed set. Sigh.
Patti, check out AMAZON Prime TV. You’ll find SCOTT & BAILEY there.
Good choice. Jackie is a big fan. We’ve watched all of them. Co-creator and writer Sally Wainwright has gone on to do LAST TANGO IN HALIFAX and HAPPY VALLEY as well. If you look up SCOTT & BAILEY’s Wikipedia page, it will tell you about the genesis for the show (originally supposed to be “the CAGNEY & LACEY of Manchester”). Jones, who plays Bailey (the one with the most messed-up private life), was one of the originators of the idea. I think we might have bought a couple of the later series on British DVDs, but as George said, you can see them on Amazon Prime.
Jeff, I enjoyed the ups and downs of Scott and Bailey in this quirky series. You’re right about Bailey making Bad Decisions on a regular basis!
The “Happy Valley” connection is enough to convince me to try this. I can’t seem to find it on Amazon Prime, although it is available on Amazon Video for a price. The whole series is also available on Hulu.
Michael, our PBS station broadcasts SCOTT & BAILEY from time to time. Thanks for alerting us to SCOTT & BAILEY on HULU.
These days, the same as when most people had 13-channels of TV and an antenna on the roof, having “just” a TV set and 108 channel cable doesn’t do it, though we pay a whopping amount each month. Now it seems you have to have half a dozen other special set-ups, special boxes and plug-ins, wireless connections for the TV (ours doesn’t have that), or at least sign up for additional services, at additional cost, so you can see much of anything.
BAH.
I caught a couple of episodes of this on PBS years ago and enjoyed it, but couldn’t find it most of the time.
Rick, we are seeing the BALKANIZATION of TV. Netflix, HBO, HULU, etc. can add up to a lot of money. Suspect further fragmentation will occur.
This reminds me of the Bruce Springsteen song:
57 channels and nothin’ on 🙂
Back to topic:
Another series which I’ve missed1
Too many books …
Wolf, SCOTT & BAILEY are worth seeking out especially if you enjoy police procedurals.
Only on DVD at Amazon. It may be on BRITBOX, but we don’t stream that.
Patti, HULU and Netflix also carry SCOTT & BAILEY.