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From influencers gone (really, really) bad and the outrageous Joe Exotic to the greatest reveal in television history – here are Guardian readers’ favourite real-life documentaries and whodunnits
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Television & radio — Alfie Packham and Guardian readers
I watched the BBC’s Unsolved: The Boy Who Disappeared when it came out and Damien Nettles, its subject , still pops up in my mind sometimes. It’s a comprehensive, empathetic and gripping investigation into a case I had never heard of. The Serial / Making a Murderer -style approach of showing the investigation, rather than just presenting information, gives the series a much more human angle. I thought it might turn up new evidence; that level of faith in the work being shown is a testament to how thorough it was. AJ, Devon, UK
I remember watching this with my dad. It came on TV late, as part of the Storyville strand, when I was about 20 and working in a pub, living at home. We were captivated by this story about a wrongly accused Black teenager and his trial for allegedly shooting an older white woman. It opened my eyes to police corruption, mistaken identity in lineups and the deep-rooted racism that underlies them. The accused boy is so incredibly normal, like friends of mine at the time, or my younger brother – and the impossibility that he decided to rob and shoot someone on a Sunday morning seems obvious. It is a beautiful piece of sensitive, non-sensationalist film-making with humanity at its heart. Rose, Wakefield, UK
I’m not a fan of true crime TV, but I did see the outrageous Tiger King and found it immensely watchable. Big-cat enthusiast Joe Exotic – who was jailed for animal abuse and two counts of attempted murder for hire, for plotting to kill a rival feline conservationist, Carole Baskin – is the kind of over-the-top character who seems as if he had sprung from a work of fiction. Bruce, Florida, US
Devil in the Family: the Fall of Ruby Franke (2025)
To call this a favourite is maybe not the right word; it’s the story of the family vlogger Ruby Franke and the the severe child abuse she committed . The camera footage – the story unfolding before us – made the documentary about this unforgivable crime difficult, albeit engaging, to watch. It’s horrific seeing educated people punishing children in a very cruel way. It helped to know before watching that the two perpetrators were jailed. Judith, Tyne and Wear, UK
This series, which focused on a murder in journalist Mobeen Azhar’s hometown of Huddersfield, was fantastic. Starting with the investigation of a single crime, the story evolves unexpectedly into a really interesting dive into societal and cultural issues, and Azhar’s personal connection to the place means he is clearly invested. It’s one of the best explorations of crime in modern Britain that I’ve seen and it’s available on BBC iPlayer. Neil Marshall , 43, Glasgow, UK
Confessions With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes (2019)
I watched Confessions With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes for the first time with a friend during my first year of uni – and then maybe 100 times since. It’s the high-water mark of an anthology series that also featured Charles Manson and John Wayne Gacy, balancing the sensational and truthful admirably, and giving due respect to the victims. It also allows Bundy to continually dob himself in, emphasising his monstrous ego and lack of empathy. Psychologically and in highlighting the police successes and failures, I still find it fascinating. It’s led to a lifelong fascination with true crime. Issy, 27, London, UK
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (2008)
I saw this about 15 years ago on a Thursday afternoon when I was off sick from work. It destroyed me. My girlfriend (now wife) came home to find me in floods of tears over the amazing David and Kathleen Bagby and how they dealt with the murder of their son, Andrew, and then the murder-suicide of his former partner, Shirley Turner (the main suspect in Andrew’s death), and one-year-old baby son, Zachary. I made everyone watch it, with the caveat that it will make you cry uncontrollably. Even typing this now, it’s making me teary, not least as it was made by Kurt Kuenne – a close friend of Andrew’s. John Fitzgerald, 58, Manchester, UK
The Staircase first appealed to me for its intimate view into a family in crisis. It’s a dramatisation, starring Colin Firth and Toni Collette, of a French documentary that first aired in 2004, about the case of an American novelist accused of murdering his wife (but who he claims fell down the stairs). From there, the rollercoaster progresses – slowly but no less exhilaratingly. The sentiments go from “there are just too many coincidences, he must be guilty”, to “he may be guilty, but the evidence is shoddy at best”, to “even if he is guilty, the American justice system is the real bad guy here and he should never have been convicted”, to ultimately believing that he probably is innocent. As a brother to a criminal defence lawyer, I always prefer true crime that helps unjustly convicted people. The Staircase is a great example of that. Michiel Pauw, 38, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
OJ: Made in America is such a great journey, using the story of OJ Simpson’s life, career and crimes to explain the history of modern civil rights in America. At the end of the series, you feel so captivated by the intertwining themes that you need time to synthesise it all. It’s a well put together series that shows the antecedents to broader societal trends. Anonymous, Australia
This is a Robbery: The World’s Biggest Art Heist (2021)
This is a Robbery is an in-depth look at the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum heist in Boston in 1990 . It remains unsolved and the artwork has never been found. It’s really well done and digs into all the weirdness and oddities that were part of the crime. What makes it especially wild is that Isabella Gardner’s will meant that the paintings couldn’t be replaced – so to this day, the spaces on the wall remain empty. Jose Ramirez , 55, Tewksbury, Massachusetts, US
The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst (2015)
The Jinx is probably the greatest true crime TV show of the modern era , certainly since Errol Morris’s The Thin Blue Line. Durst – who was suspected of killing his first wife, and was convicted for the murder of a friend and then a neighbour in 2000-01 – is a remarkable subject: a manipulative Jekyll and Hyde-type figure clearly with a great capacity for violence, but charismatic and vulnerable with it, and who is finally undone by his own entitlement and hubris. Watching him ignore the advice of his lawyers and wander inexorably into self-incrimination is highly entertaining. Andrew Jarecki is a fantastic storyteller, and the story itself unfolds with all the twists and turns to keep you completely engrossed. What it demonstrates about what wealth does to people, and how it leverages the legal system, is instructive. Combine all this with the jaw-dropping final reveal and it is about as good as true crime gets! Yvette, Bristol, UK
Unsolved Mysteries is the granddaddy of the true crime TV genre. Robert Stack was the perfect host (when he died in 2003, Dennis Farina took take over hosting duties until the end of its first run), spinning intriguing and sometimes wild and weird mysteries that you wished you could help solve. I’m sure that series helped inspire many of the armchair internet sleuths that popped up in the decades that followed. Robert Graves, 58, Los Angeles, US
Related: Who murdered Sister Cathy? Netflix takes true crime to the next level
The Keepers explores the unsolved murder of Sister Catherine Cesnik in 1969, after she grew to suspect that a priest at the Catholic high school she taught at in Baltimore had sexually abused students. This was the first true crime documentary that caught my attention. I watched and rewatched it several times, perhaps because I lived in the area in Maryland where the case happened. Susan Wilt, New York, US
American Murder: The Family Next Door (2020)
My favourite crime series has to be American Murder: The Family Next Door on Netflix. The way it’s filmed is equally enthralling and infuriating. The effect of Chris Watts’s attempts to cover up the murder of his pregnant wife and children in the town of Frederick, Colorado, in 2018 is chilling. You feel so much for his late wife, as one horrible man goes on a tear to change his life. Dane Klingaman, 40, Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, US
True crime dramas have become a guilty pleasure in retirement. Like many viewers, I justify the prurient aspect by thinking they might teach us how to avoid similar events and that they honour the victims. Last Stop Larrimah tells the story of the disappearance of an elderly, eccentric Irish immigrant from the tiny Australian outback “town” of Larrimah – population 11, falling to 10. Despite the underlying human tragedy of Paddy Moriarty’s disappearance, I found myself laughing out loud as we meet the inhabitants of Larrimah and hear their stories. As the series progresses and we begin to learn of the tensions between the residents, the tone becomes darker. In the end, this series shines a light on the human condition and Larrimah becomes a microcosm of the wider world. Tim Powell, 67, Worcester shire, UK
I remember watching this with my dad. It came on TV late, as part of the Storyville strand, when I was about 20 and working in a pub, living at home. We were captivated by this story about a wrongly accused Black teenager and his trial for allegedly shooting an older white woman. It opened my eyes to police corruption, mistaken identity in lineups and the deep-rooted racism that underlies them. The accused boy is so incredibly normal, like friends of mine at the time, or my younger brother – and the impossibility that he decided to rob and shoot someone on a Sunday morning seems obvious. It is a beautiful piece of sensitive, non-sensationalist film-making with humanity at its heart. Rose, Wakefield, UK
This report is published with credit to theguardian.com. Full available text from the wire is above. Read on theguardian.com →
Source: theguardian.com · Alfie Packham and Guardian readers. Published 26 Aug 2026, 06:57 am.
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