Blue Lights

Blue Lights is a new BBC police drama that is set in Northern Ireland.

Blue Lights is a new BBC police drama set in Northern Ireland. The full cast of the series is as follows: Filming for the series began in February 2022. The full series will be made available to view online via BBC iPlayer. She is joined on the force by fellow newcomers Annie Conlon (Katherine Devlin) and Tommy Foster (Nathan Braniff). We feel enormously grateful to the BBC for letting us do that with Blue Lights.

A rare gem among TV's never ending barrage of police procedurals, this has characters you'll actually care about – and a sense of realism.

Blue Lights won’t receive a fraction of the hype of Line of Duty, but there isn’t a duff line or an overcooked scene to be found here. [Sian Brooke](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2023/03/11/sian-brooke-bbc-drama-blue-lights-dont-think-people-should-stop/)), who has switched jobs after years as a social worker. Bad things happen – there is one horrible scene of a kneecapping – and the show deals with sectarianism and drugs gangs, but it isn’t unremittingly dark or overly political. [Beric in Game of Thrones](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2019/04/15/richard-dormer-game-thrones-premonitions-playing-ukulele-kit/)) is terrific as the grizzled Gerry, who likes to take the rookies under his wing. “I like podcasts,” comes the reply. But Grace doesn’t turn out to be the lead character, just one of many in an ensemble cast: her fellow probationers, beat veterans and bosses on one side, Belfast’s criminals on the other, and shady intelligence officers somewhere in between.

In the BBC's latest procedural thriller, cops are neither heroes nor villains – just ordinary people trying to do their job.

The message from the higher-ups was to stay clear, but Grace violated those orders and attempted to make a difference. It was hard not to see a creepy subtext to a sequence in which Grace was pranked by her colleagues, who sent an email from her computer in which she appeared to ask her superior officer out on a date. I was having flashbacks to [Line of Duty](https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/adrian-dunbar-line-of-duty-ridley-itv-detective-drama-1811052) (likewise filmed on the banks of the Lagan). He was a person of interest to undercover cops with – boo, hiss – English accents, who wanted local police to keep their noses clean. A high-speed pursuit of a stolen car ended in humiliation for Grace when it turned out that the vehicle belonged to a gangland boss with republican links. Get past the superficial resemblances to other police procedurals and Blue Lights’ action-packed and quietly addictive first episode was very much its own thing.

Siân Brooke as Grace Ellis in Blue Lights. BBC/Gallagher Films/Two Cities Television. By. James Hibbs. Published: ...

For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to [The Radio Times Podcast](https://www.radiotimes.com/audio/podcasts/). [BBC iPlayer](https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p0f2cxpr/blue-lights). For police drama devotees, Blue Lights may not be enough to fill the hole left by Happy Valley. Not only is Brooke perfectly cast as Grace, selling the character's empathy (or potential naivety) with every scene, but the series's real feather in its cap is its talented crop of up-and-coming stars. They're also able to seamlessly blend into their roles due to a lack of recognisability, an oft-undervalued trait for dramas with young stars. I also can't see it being helped by the binge watch model. Their relative lack of experience works perfectly to sell the situation, particularly as they work alongside seasoned pros such as Richard Dormer. The second reason the series works is the focus on rookies rather than established officers. It informs every decision the characters make and every situation they're called out to, giving the drama a wholly unique and fascinating identity. There are three central reasons this series works, and first and foremost of which is the setting. Along with two other rookies played by newcomers Katherine Devlin and Nathan Braniff, she discovers the immense pressure of the job and the extent of the peril that policing in the area brings to their doors. Belfast isn't just the location for the drama, it's its entire reason for being.

Set and filmed in Belfast, everything about the show is quintessentially NI with creators Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson saying portraying their home on script ...

Pair that with the local accents and setting, it was hard not to be taken by Blue Lights. Crime dramas are not usually my thing - I am ashamed to reveal that I've not seen Line of Duty or finished Bloodlands just yet. For someone who isn't a fan of police dramas, I couldn't be more delighted that the entire series is on iPlayer already as I think this will be one for binging. As someone who has no experience with the police service and grew up in a post-conflict Northern Ireland, the show is an eye-opener for me as I don't think I had much considered what it must be like for those who put their lives at risk when they go to work. In episode one we meet Grace, Tommy and Annie - each of them with different reasons for joining the police and their individual personalities immediately set the tone that there is more to each of them than we get to see in the first 60 minutes. Police dramas are a plenty but Lawn and Patterson have nailed the art of giving us a little bit to let our minds run with what is going to happen next and immediately have you hooked.

From the makers of The Salisbury Poisonings comes a lovable, refreshing drama about three new police recruits in Northern Ireland.

While Robinson’s redemption arc is satisfying, be prepared for Blue Lights to keep you guessing right up to its poignant end, which holds zero punches. This compelling storyline is enough to make it a wholly decent police drama – but what elevates Blue Lights to greatness are its deeply authentic characters. Most notably, the gravel-voiced man’s-man that is PC Gerry Cliff, who has demons aplenty, but still mentors rookie officer Tommy with affectionate fatherly teasing that makes their dynamic addictive viewing. What the detectives from the above shows all have in common is experience, but Blue Lights focusses on three fresh-faced officers on probation in Belfast, Northern Ireland’s most dangerous city. Like award-winning Northern Irish comedy We saw it with

Blue Lights is the story of three probationary officers in the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), Grace Ellis, Annie Conlon and Tommy Foster, played ...

There’s a story, apparently well founded, that in the early 1970s – as the violence during the Troubles was escalating towards uncontrollable levels – the clubbable, avuncular Tory home secretary of the day, Reggie Maudling, flew out to Belfast. Through their usual police work – stopping suspicious cars, being called out to neighbour disputes and getting assaulted just because they’re police officers – their lives become entangled with the locals, and will do so for the rest of the series (assuming they survive). [Northern Ireland](/topic/northern-ireland), but the problem with [BBC](/topic/bbc) One’s Blue Lights is that there’s no one to really root for.