The BEST episodes of 24 Hours in Police Custody
Every episode of 24 Hours in Police Custody ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of 24 Hours in Police Custody!
The landmark documentary series that captures real life drama at its most intense, following police detectives around the clock as they investigate major crimes
#1 - The Drug Drop
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/20/2014
This episode opens with a young man accidentally dropping a large quantity of cocaine from his jacket pocket outside a petrol station - all caught on CCTV. On the case are hard-bitten Detective Constable Colin Knight and fresh-faced Police Constable Oly Tomlinson, who joined the team three months earlier. They get off to a promising start, tracking down the owner of the vehicle the passenger was travelling in. DC Knight brings in his chief suspect for questioning and discovers that, just like the man in the CCTV footage, he has a striking tattoo on the right side of his neck, but could it be a case of mistaken identity? Also brought in to the custody suite is Darren, a man arrested on suspicion of theft of meat from Marks & Spencer. As he is booked into custody it soon becomes apparent he is a heroin addict. Sympathetic Custody Sergeant Pete Fitz-Gibbon tries his best to persuade him to stay strong and get clean. Both cases provide a stark picture about the dark world of young people caught up in a cycle of drug addiction and crime in Luton and the challenges facing the police as they tackle it.
#2 - A Knife Through the Heart
Season 7 - Episode 3 - Aired 6/4/2018
A man lies dying in the street from a stab wound to his heart. A friend at the scene is desperate to find out if he will survive but it is now a crime scene and he is not allowed to see the victim.
#3 - Love Hurts
Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/6/2014
Police Constable Cheryldeen Liversidge and Police Constable Kat Alison investigate two strongly contrasting stories about harassment and domestic abuse. Domestic abuse takes up to 40% of police time nationally and is now a priority for Bedfordshire Police, having had a poor record in the past. A scorned wife has dumped an ex-partner's clothes in a charity shop, while another woman complains of a series of highly threatening messages from a man with a violent past. On the surface, two very different cases, but both officers turn the cases they are investigating into something of a crusade and are determined to get to the bottom of what really went on in the private relations between their suspects and the victims.
#4 - Living Among Us
Season 7 - Episode 8 - Aired 7/9/2018
Bedfordshire Police have to confront the issues thrown up by a surge in the number of crimes related to the sexual exploitation and grooming of children by paedophiles. A man is lured to what he believes is a meeting with a 13-year-old girl, but is caught in a sting operation by so-called 'paedophile hunters'. A few days later, the case takes a surprising twist when police are called to a roadside where a pensioner is found badly beaten and suffering a bleed on the brain.
#5 - What Lies Beneath
Season 7 - Episode 6 - Aired 6/25/2018
A man phones police to claim that there are body parts buried in the garden of a house on an estate in Luton and a search team is dispatched, but faces a wall of silence at the scene. Detectives suspect that it is a fantasy but, more worryingly, they may be being deliberately drawn into a long-running and brutal tit-for-tat gang war. Cameras follow every twist and turn of the case as it escalates further when the mother of the original complainant is stabbed in the chest.
#6 - Code of Silence
Season 5 - Episode 4 - Aired 6/26/2017
A man has been attacked and left unconscious on the floor of a crowded pub for over 30 minutes. Detectives face a wall of silence as they search for evidence.
#7 - Fifty Shades of Abuse
Season 7 - Episode 5 - Aired 6/18/2018
A teenager disappears from hospital after being brought in with serious injuries that suggest she's been tied up and assaulted. Bedfordshire Police investigate.
#8 - A Second Chance
Season 7 - Episode 4 - Aired 6/11/2018
A woman calls the police to a block of flats in Luton and as they carefully advance down the corridor, a bloody handprint is clearly visible on the wall. The flat appears to be empty, but police suspect a man who has previously been in trouble with them has fled the scene. Cameras follow Bedfordshire Police's enquiry into a disturbing case that ends with a twist.
#9 - The Kane Line
Season 7 - Episode 2 - Aired 5/28/2018
The programme follows major surveillance operation run by the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit against an organised crime gang behind a drugs supply line. Ten simultaneous armed raids are launched at dawn and the suspects are taken into custody, with the cases against the gang members being documented as the officers put their evidence to them in interviews.
#10 - Body in the Grass
Season 7 - Episode 1 - Aired 5/21/2018
A woman's body is found in overgrown grassland. When detectives inform her partner of her death, his behaviour marks him out as a chief suspect.
#11 - Too Close For Comfort
Season 6 - Episode 6 - Aired 3/26/2018
A woman has reported to Bedfordshire police that she is living in fear because she believes a man who she once regarded as a friend has begun to stalk her, and officers are sent to arrest him. Cameras follow the complainant and the prime suspect as they argue over whether he has crossed a line and what was once friendship has now turned into an unhealthy obsession.
#12 - Frequent Flyers
Season 6 - Episode 5 - Aired 3/19/2018
The police search for a couple who they believe have exploited a young, vulnerable woman by taking over her flat to use it as a drugs base.
#13 - Shallow Grave
Season 6 - Episode 4 - Aired 3/12/2018
Police dig in the back garden of a house in Luton searching for the body of a woman who disappeared in 2003, believing a painstaking fingertip search might reveal vital clues in a suspected murder enquiry. Natalia Wilkanowska's disappearance left detectives from the Major Crime Unit puzzled and frustrated with the lack of answers to their questions, and cameras follow every twist and turn of an investigation in which detectives have decided it's time to solve the case by turning up the heat on their suspects.
#14 - Left for Dead
Season 6 - Episode 3 - Aired 3/5/2018
A man lies dead in a park in Peterborough and the positioning of his body raises intense suspicions, but rigor mortis has already set in and the trail of evidence is going cold. Who is the victim and how did he come to be dumped overnight in open ground? Cameras follow as detectives are called in to investigate as the case becomes the priority for Bedfordshire Police's Major Crime Unit.
#15 - Car Attack
Season 6 - Episode 2 - Aired 2/26/2018
Bedfordshire Police are called to Dunstable Town Centre, where a man has driven a car into a group of revellers outside a kebab shop before fleeing on foot. With a suspect on the loose, cameras follow every twist and turn of the investigation.
#16 - Sex and Corruption
Season 6 - Episode 1 - Aired 2/19/2018
Cameras follow all the twists and turns of the major investigation into an allegation of police corruption, as detectives track down, arrest and then charge a fellow officer.
#17 - The Golden Bracelet
Season 5 - Episode 5 - Aired 7/3/2017
Bedfordshire Police are particularly busy. A care worker denies stealing a gold bracelet, a man denies being involved in a stabbing, and a suspect is questioned about an assault.
#18 - A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
Season 10 - Episode 2 - Aired 12/5/2022
Bedfordshire Police race to rescue a missing 15-year-old girl reportedly being held captive in what becomes a case of alleged sexual grooming and serious multiple abuse.
#19 - Lost in Translation
Season 7 - Episode 7 - Aired 7/2/2018
Bedfordshire Police confront issues thrown up by the mass movement of people across Europe. A man travelling with a young woman on a one-way ticket from Bulgaria is stopped at Luton Airport. Officers from the National Crime Agency believe that he - and another man who has come to the arrivals gate to meet them - may be bringing the woman into the country unlawfully. The story takes a surprising twist when one of the men they have arrested claims he is her father. Cameras follow every twist and turn of the case, as detectives try to discover the truth when so much is obscured by different languages and culture.
#20 - Predators
Season 8 - Episode 1 - Aired 3/11/2019
Detectives hunt for two rapists. They race to stop a recent offender from striking again. And can new cutting-edge forensic techniques help them catch a rapist who has evaded justice for 10 years?
#21 - Family Secrets
Season 8 - Episode 2 - Aired 3/18/2019
Cameras follow the work of Bedfordshire Police's Internet Child Abuse Investigation Team, which deals with more than 200 cases a year. Nikki Owen is experienced in dealing with some of the most troubling crimes, but this investigation takes her into an area of criminal behaviour that is beyond what she has tackled before.
#22 - Knifed
Season 8 - Episode 3 - Aired 3/25/2019
Detectives race to the scene of a stabbing in broad daylight. Cameras follow every twist and turn of the investigation, revealing the real-life stories behind the familiar headlines about knife crime.
#23 - Smuggled
Season 8 - Episode 4 - Aired 4/1/2019
Cameras follow every twist and turn of a real-life police investigation as detectives attempt to catch a suspected drug trafficker before he can escape on a flight to Spain
#24 - The Detective and the Surgeon
Season 8 - Episode 5 - Aired 4/8/2019
The cameras follow an engrossing and surprising real-life investigation into a reported burglary of antiques worth a quarter of a million pounds from a country estate.
#25 - Sudden Death: Think Murder
Season 8 - Episode 6 - Aired 4/15/2019
Detectives investigate the sudden death of a 48-year-old woman in Cambridgeshire, and the hunt for clues takes the investigation right across Europe as cameras follow every twist and turn in the investigation.