The earliest known crime story was "The Three Apples" from One Thousand and One Nights. In the 1920s-1930s, the Golden Age of crime fiction emerged with significant authors like Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers writing detective stories that typically involved a stranger being found dead and a detective investigating the suspects connected to the victim. Modern crime dramas now sometimes portray the police as antagonists and criminals as protagonists, though the traditional format of discovering a body and investigating clues remains popular in shows like CSI.

2. The start of
fictional crime
drama
The earliest known example of a crime story
was “The Three Apples” this was a tale
narrated by Scheherazade and it was wrote
in the book “One Thousand and One Nights
(Arabian Nights).
In this tale one man orders his political
adviser to solve the crime and find the
murderer within three days, or be executed
if he fails his assignment. In the end the
case is solved as the murderer confesses to
his crime.
Many of the first signs of crime dramas
came from Chinese backgrounds. Gong‟an
fiction was the genre which referred to
Chinese crime fiction.
Early examples of crime stories includes,
Steen Steensen Blichers The Rector of
Velibye (1829), and Philip Meadows Taylor's
Confessions of a Thug (1839). These are
forerunners of some of the crime fiction that
is seen today.

3. The 1920s and 30s are commonly known as
the Golden age for fictional crime dramas
and detective fiction.
Crime Drama
„The Golden
Age‟
Some of the most significant authors for
crime dramas in this period were Agatha
Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers.
A typical plot of the Golden Age mystery
followed these lines:
• A body is found (usually a stranger) by
someone who was not expecting to find it
there, e.g. a maid finds a dead body in a
bathroom
• A detective will be called and the main
suspects for the crime (murder) will form
around the person who has been
murdered e.g. friends or perhaps enemies
of the person, usually not a great deal of
distance from the crime scene
• The police will not be able to figure out
what happened themselves so it is up to
the detective to find out, at first things are
still unclear.

4. Modern crime
drama
The formula to writing crime drama has
changed a lot since it was first founded in
the late 1800‟s. Today crime dramas often
follow the criminal in the light of the good
person, and the police/detective in the view
of being the „bad character‟.
However the traditional formula is still seen
a lot in modern day media. For example
the American TV series „CSI‟ follows the
traditional crime drama plot. In most of the
episodes a body is discovered at the start,
usually by someone who isn‟t a detective.
The CSI team then come to investigate the
scene and spend the rest of the episode
forming suspects and following up on
evidence, to try and figure out who the
criminal is.
An example of a crime drama that doesn‟t
follow the police and instead follows the
criminal is the series „Top Boy‟, which is
produced in London England and was
shown on ITV.

5. Most successful
crime dramas
These films and TV series
may also fit into other
genres but their main
genre is based around
crime. For example „Bad
Boys‟ and „The Departed‟
also fit into the genre of
action films.
Here are a list of the most successful TV
crime dramas:
• Breaking bad (2008)
• Arrow (2012)
• Sons of Anarchy (2008)
• The Blacklist (2013)
• Dexter (2006)
• Boardwalk Empire (2010)
• Prison break (2005)
• Luther (2010)
• Burn notice (2007)
• Law and order (1990)
• Ripper Street 2012
• NCIS: LA (2009)
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000)
Here as some of the most popular crime
films:
• The Shawshank redemption (1994)
• The Dark Night Rises (2012)
• Gangster Squad (2013)
• The godfather (1972)
• Goodfellas (1990)
• The Departed (2006)
• Bad Boys (1995)