| Genre: | Mystery Period drama |
| Runtime: | 60 minutes |
| Starring: | Alan Dobie William Simons David Waller |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
| Network: | ITV |
| Num Series: | 2 |
| Num Episodes: | 14 |
Cribb (Sergeant Cribb in North America) is a television police drama, which debuted in 1979 as a 90-minute TV film from Granada Television in the United Kingdom. Later, thirteen 50-minute episodes were produced, which ran from 1980 to 1981.[1]
Adapted from Peter Lovesey's Sergeant Cribb historical mystery novels and set in Victorian London around the time of the Jack the Ripper murders in 1888, Alan Dobie starred as the tough Detective Sergeant who worked for the newly formed Criminal Investigation Department (CID), determined to remove crime from the streets of London using the latest detection methods.[2]
The series portrayed life in Victorian England, and the programmes included many real historical events such as the publication of Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat and the sale of London Zoo's famous elephant, Jumbo, to Barnum and Bailey's Circus.[3] The stories included issues such as bare-knuckle prize fighting, spiritualism and Irish terrorism. Assisting Cribb was Detective Constable Thackery, played by William Simons.[4]
The 1979 pilot episode was entitled "Waxwork" and featured Carol Royle and Susie Blake and was produced and directed by June Wyndham-Davies.[5]
Cribb is available on Region 2 DVD as a box set, distributed by Acorn Media UK. The series has been released in Region 1 by BFS Video.
Six of the stories from Series 1 have also been dramatized for radio[6] by Geoffrey M Matthews as part of the BBC Saturday Night Theatre strand.[7] [8]