Wycliffe (1993)

Crime · Drama · Mystery

Wycliffe is a British television series, based on W. J. Burley's novels about Detective Superintendent Charles Wycliffe. It was produced by HTV and broadcast on the ITV Network, following a pilot episode on 7 August 1993, between 24 July 1994 and 5 July 1998. The series was filmed in Cornwall, with a production office in Truro. Music for the series was composed by Nigel Hess and was awarded the Royal Television Society award for the best television theme. Wycliffe is played by Jack Shepherd, assisted by DI Doug Kersey and DI Lucy Lane. Each episode deals with a murder investigation. In the early series, the stories are adapted from Burley's books and are in classic whodunit style, often with quirky characters and plot elements. In later seasons, the tone becomes more naturalistic and there is more emphasis on internal politics within the police.

IMDb rating: 7.2 (1,359 votes)
Episode average: 7.5 ↑ +0.3 vs IMDb
Seasons: 5
Streaming (US): Amazon Prime Video · Peacock
Language: EN
Type: TV series

Rating trend: this show's seasons do not settle into one shape. Rising Shows ranks whole shows by the shape of their rating trend rather than one average score, which is how you find a show that got better rather than a show that started well.

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Ratings refreshed Oct 3, 2026 · 5 seasons indexed

Cast

Seasons

Season 1 (1994)

7.03 avg 6 episodes 7.0 → 7.3 56 min avg

Big finale

Season 1 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	The Four Jacks	7.0	173
2	The Dead Flautist	7.0	138
3	The Scapegoat	6.9	125
4	The Tangled Web	7.0	108
5	The Last Rites	7.0	111
6	The Pea Green Boat	7.3	108

Season 2 (1995)

7.51 avg 8 episodes 7.7 → 7.7 50 min avg

Season 2 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	All for Love	7.7	110
2	The Trojan Horse	7.3	98
3	Charades	7.4	100
4	Lost Contact	7.4	97
5	Four and Twenty Black Birds	7.2	96
6	Happy Families	7.4	96
7	Wild Oats	8.0	106
8	Breaking Point	7.7	97

Season 3 (1996)

7.61 avg 8 episodes 7.6 → 7.8 50 min avg

Season 3 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Dead on Arrival	7.6	97
2	Number of the Beast	7.7	98
3	Slave of Duty	7.8	89
4	Total Loss	7.3	87
5	Crazy for You	7.8	88
6	Faith	7.3	87
7	Last Judgement	7.6	84
8	Old Habits	7.8	86

Season 4 (1997)

7.64 avg 8 episodes 7.4 → 7.5 50 min avg

Season 4 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Strangers Home	7.4	84
2	Close to Home	7.4	80
3	On Account	8.2	86
4	Lone Voyager	7.8	87
5	Seen a Ghost	8.0	93
6	Bad Blood	7.6	88
7	To Sup with the Devil	7.2	86
8	Old Crimes, New Times	7.5	73

Season 5 (1997)

7.63 avg 7 episodes 8.4 → 8.1 61 min avg

U-shaped

Season 5 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
0	Dance of the Scorpions	8.4	99
1	On Offer	7.2	70
2	Time Out	7.2	75
3	Standing Stone	7.2	77
4	Feeding the Rat	7.5	76
5	Scope	7.8	67
6	Land's End	8.1	79