The Chelsea Detective is a British crime drama television series, created by Peter Fincham and broadcast on Acorn TV since its premiere on 23 February 2022. The series focuses on various murder cases which take place in Chelsea, London and the efforts of Detective Inspector Max Arnold and his partner to solve the crimes. The third season was broadcast in 2025. The fourth season started production in mid-2025 and will be broadcast in 2026.
London's Chelsea neighbourhood is a beautiful borough for beautiful people, but it has a dark underside of deception, violence, greed and murder. Bodies have a way of showing up, and things are rarely what they seem. The story follows Detective Inspector Max Arnold and his partner as they investigate these murders.
Action in the series is routinely focused on the Chelsea area of London and references are commonly made to Chelsea landmarks such as
Brompton Cemetery was also the setting for one episode.
Note that for some broadcasts, the 88 minute episodes were each split into two 45 minute episodes, with their own opening titles and end credits. This is the case with the UK streaming service U, which has the first two series in its catalog, each with 8 x 45 minute episodes. Meanwhile, Acorn has the same series in their original format.