Viewers who tore through Steve Coogan’s latest thriller Legends on Netflix now have five more British crime dramas to line up next. A new Esquire list published on May 17 points them toward five bingeworthy, gritty thrillers already streaming on Netflix.
The recommendations start with Top Boy, written by Ronan Bennet and starring Ashley Walters, Kano and Little Simz. Set in the drug wars of London, the series gives the list its hardest edge. It also points to Rebus, a reboot of the detective John Rebus story with Richard Rankin in the lead, and Prey, which follows a police officer played by John Simm who becomes the subject of a murder investigation.
Bodyguard is on the list too, bringing back the 2018 thriller that stars Keeley Hawes and Richard Madden. The final recommendation is a series set across London and Tokyo that includes Will Sharpe in its cast. All five shows are on Netflix now, making the list less a preview than a ready-made watch plan for anyone finishing Legends and wanting to stay inside the same dark, propulsive lane.
That framing matters because the selection is not just a roundup of police dramas. It mixes series and ITV series, all packaged as British gritty thrillers, which gives the list a clear identity and a wider reach for viewers who want the same tension with a different cast. The connective thread is simple: if Legends pulled you in, these are the next five shows built to hold you there.
The one wrinkle is that the list arrives as a follow-on to a single title, Legends, rather than as a broader genre guide. That means the new readership is likely people already looking for something similar, not casual browsers. For them, the answer is immediate and practical: the next binge is already on the platform, and the five picks are already waiting.
