# Blue Lights (2023 TV series) series 2

The second series of the British police procedural drama series Blue Lights began broadcasting on 15 April 2024 on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. It ended on 20 May 2024. The series takes place one year after the first series. It consists of six sixty-minute episodes which released on Mondays on iPlayer at 6 am before airing on BBC One at 9 pm.

## Production

Series 2 was set one year after series 1. The series penned that Grace, Annie and Tommy had become hardened by the job, beginning to feel the physical and mental effects of police work. Writers Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson were enthusiastic to work on a second series, Lawn commenting that it was "like coming back to meet old friends and then devising new ways to put your old friends through torture" and Patterson adding that "coming back for series two was a dream come true". Lawn further added that: "Series two is bigger, bolder and more dramatic. Series one was about our recruits having their feet held in the fire and in series two they are firmly in the fire. The city is under siege with drugs and petty crime and they can’t work out what’s going on nor do they have the resources to deal with it. At the heart of the series is a story about a veteran, Lee Thompson, who returns to see the place he has grown up in torn apart by drugs and crime. He decides to wage a one-man revolution against the loyalist godfathers and it causes total chaos for our police officers and the city in general. Everything spirals out of control and the pressure grows". Patterson promised that in series two, the writers took bigger risks as "there’s a lot of Belfast to look at and we wanted to shine a light on different parts of the city". Stylistically, the writers aimed to show more of Belfast, as, in Patterson's words: "We really worked hard to find the tapestry and the blanket imagery that would lead into our worlds and people and that led to it feeling more visceral and real. We wanted to show more of this place that we love but that is still in many ways troubled". The second series saw actors Frank Blake, Seamus O'Hara, Seána Kerslake, Craig McGinlay, and Dan Gordan join the ensemble cast.

## Cast

* Siân Brooke as Grace Ellis
* Katherine Devlin as Annie Conlon
* Nathan Braniff as Tommy Foster
* Martin McCann as Constable Stephen 'Stevie' Neil
* Joanne Crawford as Sergeant Helen McNally
* Andi Osho as Sergeant Sandra Cliff
* Hannah McClean as Constable Jen Robinson
* Jonathan Harden as Inspector David "Jonty" Johnson
* Desmond Eastwood as Murray Canning
* Andrea Irvine as Nicola Robinson
* Paddy Jenkins as Happy Kelly
* Frank Blake as Constable Shane Bradley
* Seamus O'Hara as Lee Thompson
* Seána Kerslake as Mags Thompson
* Craig McGinlay as Craig McQuarrie
* Dan Gordon as Rab Thompson

## Episodes

| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | UK viewers (millions) |
| 7 | 1 | "This Too Shall Pass" | Declan Lawn & Adam Patterson | Declan Lawn & Adam Patterson | 15 April 2024 (2024-04-15) | 4.82 |
| A year into the job, the team are faced with a drug-fuelled crime wave that leads them into a loyalist estate. A violent clash puts Stevie and Grace’s working relationship at risk. |||||||
| 8 | 2 | "Iceberg" | Declan Lawn & Adam Patterson | Declan Lawn & Adam Patterson | 22 April 2024 (2024-04-22) | TBC |
| A loyalist gangland feud turns up the pressure on the section. Annie makes an impetuous decision on a night out. |||||||
| 9 | 3 | "Love Knows" | Declan Lawn & Adam Patterson | Bronagh Taggart | 29 April 2024 (2024-04-29) | TBC |
| As tensions grow in Mount Eden, a response call forces Stevie to confront his past. Annie deals with the consequences of an impulsive decision. |||||||
| 10 | 4 | "The Stamp of Nature" | Jack Casey | Noel McCann | 6 May 2024 (2024-05-06) | TBC |
| Lee is the new boss in Mount Eden. Under pressure from Canning to get results, Shane leads Tommy into danger. |||||||
| 11 | 5 | "Where I Want To Be" | Jack Casey | Declan Lawn & Adam Patterson | 13 May 2024 (2024-05-13) | TBC |
| Annie’s job is on the line. As Lee consolidates power, Stevie and Grace are thrown back together on a response call, with terrible consequences. |||||||
| 12 | 6 | "The Loyal" | Jack Casey | Declan Lawn & Adam Patterson | 20 May 2024 (2024-05-20) | TBC |
| Mount Eden descends into chaos as Grace tries to get Henry out from under Lee’s control. Happy finally learns the truth. |||||||

## Reception

Series 2 of Blue Lights received mostly positive reviews. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, series 2 has an approval rating of 91% based on 11 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "A procedural done precisely by the book, Blue Lights' sophomore season adheres to formula but does so with the utmost efficiency and panache". Jack Seale of The Guardian gave the series 4/5 stars, writing: "Its gift for plain speaking is one thing that makes Blue Lights such rewarding drama, but the difficult political truths are softened by a weakness for that staple of escapist emergency-services soaps, the workplace romance". Nick Hilton of The Independent gave the series 3/5 stars, writing "As generic fare goes, Blue Lights is of the highest order. The acting and writing is first rate, and Brooke, particularly, is a terrific leading lady". Chris Wasser of Irish Independent wrote "Just like last time, it’s all building towards something big -- something explosive, even. And, just like last time, Blue Lights remembers the importance of a nail-biting set-piece". Benji Wilson of Daily Telegraph gave the series 5/5 stars, writing "It doesn’t take long, however, for series two to catch light, and once it does it is irresistible". Dan Einav of Financial Times gave the second series 4/5 stars, writing: "Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson take time to contextualise their fiction within the very real tragedies of Belfast’s past and present. But Blue Lights is neither insistently political nor wearingly downbeat".
Carol Midgley of The Times wrote that "The story is still warming up at this stage, but this is dense, rich soil and these are the perfect writers to till it". Hugo Rifkind of The Times wrote that "You do occasionally get the feeling that Belfast only has in it about eight police, who all have to do far too many jobs, like Mrs Rabbit. Still, it’s heavy with mood and has a streak of outraged social politics at its core". Camilla Long of The Times criticised the second series, writing: "The writers saw this, caught our sense of paranoia, creating a horribly plausible show. But the new series doesn’t feel like that any more. It mostly feels like a police sitcom with all the jokes taken out". Helen Hawkins of The Arts Desk gave the series 4/5 stars, saying: "The first season of Blue Nights was so close to police procedural perfection, it would be hard for season two to reach the same heights. Overall, it doesn’t, though there are still special moments". Aidan Smith of The Scotsman wrote that "We could be watching The Wire; Blue Lights is that gritty and aspires to be that great". Alison Rowat of The Herald wrote that "The blending of hard-edged and soft is one of the reasons for the show’s success. We want a police procedural set in today’s Belfast to keep it real, but not too real".