Cribb

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title: "Cribb" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1970s-british-crime-television-series", "1970s-british-drama-television-series", "1970s-british-mystery-television-series", "1979-british-television-series-debuts", "1980s-british-crime-television-series", "1980s-british-drama-television-series", "1980s-british-mystery-television-series", "1981-british-television-series-endings", "fictional-british-detectives", "british-english-language-television-shows", "itv-television-dramas", "television-shows-produced-by-granada-television", "television-series-set-in-the-1880s", "television-shows-set-in-london"] description: "British police drama TV series (1979–1981)" topic_path: "geography/united-kingdom" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cribb" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary British police drama TV series (1979–1981) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox television"]

Field	Value
genre	Mystery
Period drama
image	Cribb opening title.png
runtime	60 minutes
based_on
starring	Alan Dobie
William Simons
David Waller
country	United Kingdom
language	English
network	ITV
first_aired
last_aired
num_series	2
num_episodes	14
::

| genre = Mystery Period drama | image = Cribb opening title.png | caption = | alt_name = | runtime = 60 minutes | creator = | based_on = | starring = Alan Dobie William Simons David Waller | opentheme = | executive_producer = | country = United Kingdom | language = English | network = ITV | first_aired = | last_aired = | num_series = 2 | num_episodes = 14 | list_episodes =

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.

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.

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. The stories included issues such as bare-knuckle prize fighting, spiritualism and Irish terrorism. Assisting Cribb was Detective Constable Thackery, played by William Simons.

The 1979 pilot episode was entitled "Waxwork" and featured Carol Royle and Susie Blake and was produced and directed by June Wyndham-Davies.

Main cast

• Alan Dobie as Sergeant Daniel Cribb
• William Simons as Constable Edward Thackeray
• David Waller as Inspector Jowett

Episodes

Series 1

::data[format=table]

Episode #	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original airdate
EpisodeNumber=1	Title=Waxwork	1979	12	23
Pauline Macaulay
::

Series 2

::data[format=table]

Episode #	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original airdate
EpisodeNumber=9	Title=Mad Hatter's Holiday	1981	3	29
Bill MacIlwraith
::

DVD

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.

Radio dramatizations

Six of the stories from Series 1 have also been dramatized for radio by Geoffrey M Matthews as part of the BBC Saturday Night Theatre strand.

::data[format=table]

Episode #	Title	Producer/Director	Original airdate
Title=Abracadaver	EpisodeNumber=3	1973	3
::

References

References

1. [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080208/ ''Cribb''] on the [[Internet Movie Database]]
2. Joseph, Michael. (1980). "25 Years on ITV". Independent Television Books Ltd.
3. "Cribb".
4. (19 November 2010). "Cribb | Nostalgia Central".
5. ".:: CRIBB ::.".
6. "Waxwork (1979)".
7. The episode title is a reference to the [[Eton Boating Song]].
8. "TV, Film And Radio".
9. "radio plays,DIVERSITY WEBSITE,bbc,radio drama,saturday night theatre - Lost, 1988-1970".
10. "Radio drama - DIVERSITY WEBSITE - 1987".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::