Steeltown Murders — Philip Glenister stars in cold case mystery

Review by C.J. Bunce

For fans of the original British series Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes, what could be better than to see Life on Mars’ John Simm starring in the police procedural Grace, Ashes to Ashes’ Keeley Hawes in her own spy series The Assassin, and the star of both series–the “Gene Genie” himself–Philip Glenister starring as a bristly cop in the cold case mystery series Steeltown Murders? Okay, while we wait for the impossible–some kind of continuation of Ashley Pharoah, Tony Jordan, and Matthew Graham’s five seasons of supernatural police procedural out-of-time travel cops–it’s time to catch up on Glenister’s brilliant performance in the 2025 series Steeltown Murders. Set in 2002, he portrays an end-of-his-career, real-life detective trying one last time to solve the murder of three young women in South Wales way back in 1973. The series is now streaming on AMC+ and Acorn TV.

In what became the first documented serial killer in Wales, teens Geraldine Hughes and Pauline Floyd left a nightclub in Swansea, never making it home. They were found dead in a nearby wooded area in Llandarcy. Part of the mystery of this four-epiosde miniseries queries whether these crimes were related to the earlier death of 16-year-old Sandra Newton. It revisits the known events and the police response via alternating scenes in 1973 and the early 2000s.

The year 1973 will perk up the ears of those who watched Glenister in Life on Mars, as that is the year in which we met Glenister’s sharp character DCI Gene Hunt. In Steeltown Murders Glenister plays 2002 DCI Paul Bethell, when DNA technology finally arrives, and another, younger actor Scott Arthur, plays Bethell as the cop on the scene during the original investigation. Glenister raises the bar for the genre, revealing an earnest mid-level cop still bothered by the original investigation, where his bosses ignored his instincts. Since his instincts were both sometimes right and sometimes wrong, even with only four episodes the plot has a chance to give the investigation some highs and some lows. But Glenister, along with Nia Roberts as wife Karina, give some dramatic insight into a diligent, conscientious worker who lets his job get the better of him, consuming some of the better parts of his life, negatively affecting his relationship with his wife along the way.

As for a young Bethell, Arthur is up to the task, embodying a young Glenister perfectly. Young Bethell is frequently pushed aside, but his determined, single-minded focus on the case provides a window into the challenges of crime scene analysis and contemporary technology in the early 2000s. Arthur resembles a young Robert Redford at times, which may be hard to reconcile if you’re a fan of Glenister. Watch the series and you’ll see it (it’s something more than the hair).

The series, created by Grace writer Ed Whitmore and directed by Marc Evans, stays respectful to the victims and their families, while also leaning into the challenges to the investigators, their personal lives, and the costs of rekindling a 30-year cold case for the town, the families, the police force, and the people working the case with little resources and a small window to get the job done.

In the past and present Bethell was partnered with DC Phil “Bach” Rees. In the present Rees is played by Steffan Rhodri (who played Reg Cattermole in the first Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows movie) and by Siôn Alun Davies in 1973 scenes. If you’re not a fan of split, timeframe series–Marchlands and Lightfields did this well–consider Steeltown Murders an example of how to do it right. Hinterland star Richard Harrington plays a DNA expert in the local crime lab. He gets some good scenes, but is also underutilized. Karen Paullada offers a unique twist on the local police chief–she balances the needs of the force from a resources standpoint while also trusting the instincts of Bethell as a “new old cop” assigned to her. Priyanga Burford and Natasha Vasandani play the later and earlier version of Sita Anwar–a friend of the missing girls who was last to see them alive, who is still around at the time of the 2002 investigation.

About the only thing lackluster about the series is the title. The city was a steel town during the events of the series, but is no longer. The fact it was a steel town never enters the discussion of the story, so almost any other title might have been more attention-getting. For a police procedural, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a series as realistic, especially including the more mundane aspects of investigating cold crimes, so don’t let this fall under your radar. Steeltown Murders is now streaming on AMC+ and Acorn TV.

Catch up with our reviews of other quality British TV series (including Australian and New Zealand shows you’d find on PBS, BritBox, or Acorn TV) beginning with our Top 10: Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes, Zen, Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?, Mr. Selfridge, Guilt, The IPCRESS File, The Hour, The Gentlemen, Black Doves, and Shetland. You could stay pretty busy with our full list of top British TV recommendations, including The Artful Dodger, Van Der Valk, the first season of Sherlock, Deadloch, Troppo, Case Histories, This is Going to Hurt, the second season of Black Snow dragged the series from the Top 10 tier down to here, Mystery Road: Origin, Death Valley, Dept. Q, Bodkin, The Bletchley Circle, Good Cop/Bad Cop, Grace, Steeltown Murders comes in about here, Hinterland, Glitch, Mystery Road, Culprits, Harrow, Annika, The Day of the Jackal, Code of Silence, Luther, Professor T, and Supacell. After you’ve seen all of those, try Viva Blackpool, Marchlands, Lightfields, State of Play, I, Jack Wright, Population 11, Protection, After the Flood, Traces, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Ordeal by Innocence, Unforgotten, The Bay, Wild Bill, Quirke, Requiem, The Gloaming, The Clearing, The One, The Tourist, The Tower, Collateral, Roadkill, Stay Close, The Salisbury Poisonings, and A Confession.

Other British series across genres that are worth checking out (a few still to be reviewed here) include fun romps like Monarch of the Glen, Para Handy, Cranford, Viva Blackpool, and As Time Goes By, and cozy mysteries Rosemary and Thyme, Father Brown, Hetty Wainthropp, and Death in Paradise. One of the best of all British productions is the reboot of All Creatures Great and Small, which is in our British Top 10 (and the original is good, too). Of course there’s always Doctor Who for your sci-fi fix (and spin-offs Torchwood and Class), The Watch for your fantasy fix, Truth Seekers and Sea of Souls for your supernatural fix, and Spaced for more sci-fi fun, and we really should add House, MD, for Brit lead Hugh Laurie’s one-of-a-kind performance. (We’ve also reviewed but don’t heartily recommend so much Dublin Murders, The ABC Murders, The Pale Horse, Reef Break, The One That Got Away, The Silence, The Five, The Missing, Thirteen, or Broadchurch, as well as No Offence, which could have merited a review for its first season but, like Sherlock, its later episodes were a disappointment).