[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/scott_and_bailey.jpg]]

''Scott & Bailey'' is a British detective series set in the fictional police division of the Major Incident Team (MIT) in Manchester. Our two lead characters are the eponymous DC Janet Scott and DC Rachel Bailey. They are [[GenreSavvy (inevitably)]] a [[OddCouple chalk & cheese pairing]], Rachel being a [[HardDrinkingPartyGirl free spirit and intermittently single]], while Janet begins the series with a husband and with two children. [[DaChief Their boss]] is also a woman, [[IronLady DCI Jill Murray.]]

Although undoubtedly glamourized from real life, the show takes pains to get many aspects of police procedure correct - it's usually a case of breaking apart a suspect's alibi through a tedious accumulation of evidence rather than any "Eureka" moment providing the critical breakthrough.

While the detective work is idealized (inevitably, they almost always get their man), the MarriedToTheJob aspect is not. The series has shown the gradual breakdown of Janet's marriage, and Rachel clearly loves her job rather than any of the men she has relationships with.

The series premiered in 2011 and ran for five series before ending in 2016.
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!!This show provides examples of:

* AbusiveParents: Joe and Eunice Bevan.
* ApronMatron: Janet's bossy but loving mum.
* AmoralAttorney: Nick Savage, Rachel's annoying boyfriend ins Series 1.
* AscendedExtra: Pete, Mitch and Lee have very few lines in Series 1, but gradually get more from Series 2 onwards.
* AssholeVictim
* BeAsUnhelpfulAsPossible: Every interviewee in every episode. Even the innocent ones.
* BelligerentSexualTension: Rachel and Kevin
* BigScrewedUpFamily: Rachel's mother is a AlcoholicParent who [[ParentalAbandonment abandoned the family]] when Rachel was a child. Rachel's dead father was a {{Domestic Abuse}}r, and her brother is a minor criminal. Rachel and her sister are WhiteSheep, however.
** The Bevan family. [[spoiler: Joe and Eunice kidnapped and sexually tortured young men, murdered one of their daughters and their son, made another daughter help in burying her brother and to cap it all off Joe murders Eunice decades later]]
* BrandX: Rachel uses "Net Searcher" to look something up on the Internet in [=S01E05=], and there is an Internet site that is both used for dating and selling items in [=S04E04=] called "Clicker".
* BritsLoveTea: Pretty much everyone seems to have a mug at any meeting and Gill tells everyone to "finish your brews" at the end of one. A "brew list" can be seen in the background in [=S04E04=]. (Rachel's top of the list, [[FridgeLogic so perhaps she was the one who wrote it.]]
* BuddyCopShow
* ConvenientMiscarriage: The resolution to [[spoiler: Rachel]]’s pregnancy in Season 1.
* DaChief: Murray can be like this.
* DangerTakesABackSeat: In S03 E08, a woman hides in the back of DCI Gill Murray's car while she is shopping, and forces her to drive off with a knife held to her throat.
* DoggedNiceGuy: [[spoiler: Andy initially seems like this]] to Janet. Sean to Rachel.
* DoubleStandardRapeMaleOnMale: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]] - see OldFashionedCopper below.
* ElderAbuse: [=S03E06=] centres around this problem.
* ExpectingSomeoneTaller: A retired police officer comments to Rob "you're very young to be a sergeant," much to Rob's embarrassment.
* FairCop
* HeroOfAnotherStory: Gill's friend DSI Julie Dodson, who leads Syndicate 3.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: Janet and Rachel.
* HufflepuffHouse: The people in the background in team meetings. Presumably they're other MIT team members from different shifts, or perhaps officers from other divisions sitting in.
* HypercompetentSidekick: Andy to Gill.
* ICouldaBeenAContender: Rachel's sister Alison. She could have gone to college, but she had to leave school and get a job because Rachel and Dominic were 12 and 10, their mother abandoned them, and their father was a depressed alcoholic. She is understandably furious with her mother over this.
* IDidntMeanToKillHim
* {{Infodump}}: We learn a huge amount of plot information from MIT team meetings.
* IronLady: Gill. And for all Rachel's grousing about her, she's actually a ReasonableAuthorityFigure.
* LovelyAngels
* MarriedToTheJob
* MyLocal: "The Old Grapes", where the MIT crew wind down.
* NameAndName
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: There are a pair of murderers in Series Three that are quite clearly modelled on RealLife [[SerialKiller serial killers]] Fred and Rose West. Their daughter seems to be loosely based on the West's daughter Anne Marie Davis.
* NoodleIncident: Why do Julie Dodson and Kevin hate each other? It is implied he was originally in her syndicate, and made a mistake, or series of mistakes, however we never find out what.
* OddCouple: Janet, the loving family woman, and Rachel, the HardDrinkingPartyGirl.
* OldFashionedCopper: Gets a mention when a rapist and serial killer who was active in TheSeventies is caught. The team are disgusted by the police report of the time, which is scornful of the one male victim who managed to escape. Rob's retired father is also one (see PerpSweating below.)
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Mitch. You have to watch the credits to find out his name is actually Ian Mitchell.
* OopNorth
* PantyThief: In one murder investigation, a neighbor is discovered to have several pairs of the victim's underwear. [[spoiler: He's not the killer.]]
* PerpSweating: Averted - interviews are conducted by calmly talking to suspects. The [[DeconstructedTrope trope is desconstructed]] in [=S04E02=], when the team reviews a tape from 1991 that essentially consisted of a police officer shouting at an (innocent) suspect. When asked about the tape, the [[OldFashionedCopper now retired officer]] replied defensively, "you listen to any tape from 1991, it'll sound like that. That's how the job was done." (Rather awkwardly, he's Rob's father, and Rob does not take kindly to the team criticising his dad.)
* PoliceProcedural
* RapeAsDrama
* RememberTheNewGuy: DC Chris Crowley, who must have joined the team sometime between Series 3 and 4, but doesn't get an introduction.
* RippedFromTheHeadlines
* RightBehindMe: Subverted - Murray never caught Janet and Rachel calling her "Godzilla" behind her back.
* SerialKiller:
** The man who killed Janet's childhood friend Veronica.
** Jeremy Leach in [=S03E03=], who had been caught 13 years previously.
** The Bevans.
* ShoutOut:
-->'''Gill: '''"What were you doing in the pub in the middle of the afternoon? What do you think this is? [[Series/LifeOnMars2006 Life On Mars]]?
* SpeedDating: Janet tries this in Series 4. Unfortunately, you can take the girl out of the police station, but not the police station out of the girl:
-->'''Janet: '''"So have you been to this SpeedDating thing before?"
-->'''Hapless Speed Dating Guy: '''"Um, not really."
-->'''Janet: '''"You just said "the usual" when asked about your day, and that included coming here. It's just...you seem a bit...inconsistent."
* StalkerWithACrush: [[spoiler: Andy]] to Janet.
* StalkingIsLove: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]], as [[spoiler: Andy's]] behaviour to Janet is definitely not portrayed as being appropriate.
* StupidSexyFriend: Kevin is this to Rachel. Mainly because he really is thick.
* TurnInYourBadge: Subverted with DCI Murray; [[spoiler: when she hands in her warrant card (which her boss then cuts in two), she's retiring and can do so with her head held high]].
* UnresolvedSexualTension:
** Rachel and Kevin [[spoiler: until [=S03E06=].]]
** Janet and Chris, lampshaded by Rachel, who is a ShipperOnDeck. (Apparently, [[EveryoneCanSeeIt Gill has also commented on it.)]]
* WholeEpisodeFlashback: [=S03E02=], which is mostly about how Rachel came to get married. We only see a couple of scenes relating to the MysteryOfTheWeek.
* WouldHitAGirl
* WrongGenreSavvy: An innocent suspect in [=S04E05=] gives a [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech magnificent speech]] to [[MistakenForRacist Janet]] about how she thinks the police are going to attempt to blame her for a murder, as she is a working-class black woman. [[WrongGenreSavvy (She is quite wrong in this,]] as the team are simply investigating everyone who could have committed the crime.)
* YouCantFightFate: Sean jokingly says this [=word-for-word=] to Rachel when trying to convince her to marry him.