---
title: "The Chelsea Detective"
year: 2022
kind: "series"
canonical: "https://film.one/tv/the-chelsea-detective"
fi1m_id: "the-chelsea-detective"
imdb_id: "tt14321914"
tmdb_id: 156240
wikidata_id: "Q111733643"
fi1m_score: 70
critics_reviews: 1
published: "2026-09-23T14:03:05.919029+00:00"
updated: "2026-09-23T14:03:06.432398+00:00"
region: "CA"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# The Chelsea Detective (2022)

Created by Peter Fincham · Crime, Mystery

## Identity

The Chelsea Detective

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/tv/the-chelsea-detective
- **Type:** Series
- **Fi1m ID:** the-chelsea-detective
- **IMDb ID:** tt14321914
- **TMDB ID:** 156240
- **Wikidata ID:** Q111733643
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14321914/, https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/156240, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q111733643

**Fi1m score: 70** · Critics: 1 of 6 reviews so far

*In a sentence:* Murder among the stucco, investigated by a man who lives on a boat and never raises his voice

> A gentle, well-made whodunnit that does nothing you have not seen and does most of it properly. Adrian Scarborough is the reason to watch: a detective who listens rather than declaims, in a postcode where nobody is used to being listened to.

## Synopsis

Chelsea, west London. Detective Inspector Max Arnold (Adrian Scarborough) has moved out of the family home and on to a houseboat moored on the Thames, a short walk from the stucco terraces and private squares he now polices. His wife, Astrid Fischer (Anamaria Marinca), is still nearby, and they have not decided what they are. His sergeant, DS Priya Shamsie (Sonita Henry), is married to Nitin (Davood Ghadami) and goes home at night to a life; Max goes home to a boat. Each case begins with a body found in one of the richest postcodes in Britain and proceeds through interviews with neighbours, relatives and staff, most of whom have something they would rather not say. DC Connor Pollock (Peter Bankole) does the door-knocking.

## Review

Peter Fincham created *The Chelsea Detective* and writes it with Glen Laker and Liz Lake, and what the three of them have set out to make is the most familiar thing in British television: the unhurried whodunnit with a rumpled inspector at its centre, four cases to a series, one body per case. The idea is to move that form to SW3 and let a man who could never afford to live there ask questions of the people who do. It is good, in the way a well-made chair is good. It does nothing you have not seen, and it does most of it properly.

Adrian Scarborough is the reason to watch. He plays DI Max Arnold at the volume of a man asking a shop assistant for help, hands in his coat pockets, head slightly tilted, letting a silence run until the person opposite fills it. The trick of the character is that the wealthy do not take him seriously, so they talk, and Scarborough lets us see Max noticing this and declining to be offended. We were never once on the edge of the sofa. Somewhere in the second episode we realised we did not mind, and that what was keeping us there was his face in the interview scenes, a look of patient interest that the suspects keep mistaking for slowness.

Rob Kitzmann and Tom Hines shoot Chelsea in daylight and mostly from the pavement, so the white stucco terraces loom a little and the black railings do a lot of work. Interiors are cream and glass and expensive quiet. Against all this sits Max’s houseboat, low on the river and cluttered, and the series is never more itself than when it cuts from a drawing room to that boat. This is a programme about money, which is the one thing its detective has not got, and the two cinematographers understand that better than the scripts sometimes do.

The partnership carries the procedure. Sonita Henry’s DS Priya Shamsie treats Max with a mockery that has respect underneath it, and Davood Ghadami, as her husband Nitin, gives her a home to be irritated in, so that she has a life of her own. When Vanessa Emme’s DS Layla Walsh takes the chair in later series the show barely breaks stride. That is partly because the form is sturdy and partly because neither sergeant has been given much that could break. Peter Bankole and Lucy Phelps, as the two constables, are given enough to register. Frances Barber turns up as Olivia Arnold and, being Frances Barber, takes the scene.

The best material away from the bodies is Anamaria Marinca as Astrid, the wife Max has left without quite leaving. Marinca plays her as a woman who has made a decision and keeps not acting on it, and the scenes between them, on the boat, over food neither of them finishes, have a truthfulness the murders never reach. Those murders are solved the old way. Someone in a nice room says more than they meant to, Max asks one further question, and there is a confession. We saw the shape of it coming every time, and the scripts do not seem to mind that we did.

The pace is the price. Xavier Russell and David Barrett let scenes stand a beat longer than they need, and the four directors, Brian Kelly, Jennie Darnell, Darcia Martin and Richard Signy, keep the look so uniform that we could not tell you which of them did what. Ian Arber’s score is light piano over strings, and it tends to arrive at the moment we were about to be curious anyway. Four episodes a series is not many, and the private lives take a while to accumulate into anything.

Against *Morse* or [*Vera*](https://film.one/tv/vera) it is smaller and knows it. It is handsome, mild and confident about who is watching. The 12 certificate is honest, since the bodies are found rather than made. If you like the form, this is a decent evening of it, and Scarborough is worth the trip to a part of London most of us only see from the top of a bus.

*Fi1m score 70, published 23 September 2026.*

## Straight answers

**Is The Chelsea Detective worth watching?**

*The Chelsea Detective* is worth watching for anyone who likes an unhurried British whodunnit with a rumpled inspector at its centre, and we scored it 70. Adrian Scarborough is the reason to stay: a detective who listens rather than declaims. Nobody will be on the edge of the sofa, and the solutions arrive by the old route, but the form is sturdy and mostly done properly.

**Where can I watch The Chelsea Detective in Canada?**

*The Chelsea Detective* is streaming on Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV in Canada, and it is also available to buy from Apple TV. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How violent or frightening is The Chelsea Detective, and is it suitable for children?**

*The Chelsea Detective* carries a UK 12 certificate and is mild for a crime drama: the bodies are found rather than made, and the violence happens off screen. There is nothing frightening in it, and the interest lies in interviews in expensive rooms. Older children who can follow a slow investigation will be fine; younger ones will simply be bored.

**What should I watch after The Chelsea Detective?**

After *The Chelsea Detective*, try [*Unforgotten*](https://film.one/tv/unforgotten) (2015, Fi1m 64): Cold cases worked slowly by decent people; the same patience, with more at stake. Then [*Gosford Park*](https://film.one/film/gosford-park) (2001, Fi1m 85): A country-house murder where the staff know everything and the guests know nothing.

### Reviews we read (1)

- **Radio Times**, Jack Seale (7.4/10): The critic finds the series a sedate but classy sleuther with low-key likeable characters. The partnership between the leads has a lovely mix of wry mockery and mutual respect, making the slow pace a pleasure even if nothing new is done with the English whodunnit. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/programme/b-od9hn7/the-chelsea-detective/)

## Details

- **Created by:** Peter Fincham
- **Creator:** Peter Fincham
- **Director:** Jennie Darnell, Darcia Martin, Richard Signy, Brian Kelly
- **Writer:** Glen Laker, Peter Fincham, Liz Lake
- **Cinematography:** Tom Hines, Rob Kitzmann
- **Editor:** Xavier Russell, David Barrett
- **Music:** Ian Arber
- **Cast:** Adrian Scarborough as DI Max Arnold; Sonita Henry as DS Priya Shamsie; Vanessa Emme as DS Layla Walsh; Anamaria Marinca as Astrid Fischer; Peter Bankole as DC Connor Pollock; Lucy Phelps as DC Jess Lombard; Sophie Leigh Stone as Ashley Wilton; Davood Ghadami as Nitin Shamsie
- **Release (Canada):** 7 February 2022
- **Genres:** Crime, Mystery
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUjvJOV5pfI

## Where to watch in Canada

- Amazon Prime Video: add-on
- Apple TV: add-on, hd
- Apple TV: buy, hd

*Checked 2026-09-23.*

Also available in: AT, AU, CA, CH, DE, ES, GB, IE, IN, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *Columbo* (1971): The original underestimated detective, letting rich Californians talk themselves into handcuffs.
- *Inspector Montalbano* (1999): Sicilian murders, long lunches and a policeman who would rather be swimming.
- *Vera* (2011): Brenda Blethyn in a mac, solving crimes by refusing to be impressed by anyone.
- *Unforgotten* (2015), Fi1m 64: Cold cases worked slowly by decent people; the same patience, with more at stake. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/unforgotten.md)
- *Gosford Park* (2001), Fi1m 85: A country-house murder where the staff know everything and the guests know nothing. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/gosford-park.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/the-chelsea-detective