Blue Lights is a television drama series, set in Belfast, Northern Ireland, following three probationary police officers of the Police Service of Northern Ireland. The series was broadcast on BBC One and BBC iPlayer, premiering on 27 March 2023; it has been re-commissioned for a second series, which began filming in 2023.

Synopsis
The series follows three probationary period police officers in the Police Service of Northern Ireland assigned to the fictional Blackthorn Station in Belfast. One of the new officers, Grace, is a mother in her 40s, who left her job as a social worker to join the Police Service but only weeks into the job she wonders if she's made the right decision. The focus of the series is also on fellow rookies Annie (Devlin) and Tommy (Braniff), who themselves are struggling under the immense pressure of the job.

Cast
Siân Brooke – Constable Grace Ellis, a probationer and former social worker.
Katherine Devlin – Constable Annie Conlon, a Catholic probationer.
Nathan Braniff – Constable Tommy Foster, a fast-track probationer.
Richard Dormer – Constable Gerard 'Gerry' Cliff, Tommy's training officer.
Martin McCann – Constable Stephen 'Stevie' Neil, Grace's training officer.
John Lynch – James McIntyre, the head of a republican crime family.
Jonathan Harden – Inspector David 'Jonty' Johnston, the leader of the response team.
Valene Kane – Angela Mackle, mother associated with the McIntyres.
Dane Whyte O'Hara – Gordon 'Gordy' Mackle, teenager working for the McIntyres.
Joanne Crawford – Sergeant Helen McNally, the team's second-in-command.
Hannah McClean – Constable Jen Robinson, a fast-tracked officer for two years and the daughter of a female senior officer.
Andi Osho – Sergeant Sandra Cliff, custody sergeant and Gerry's wife.
Nabil Elouahabi – Joseph, an intelligence operative.

Episodes
Series 1

Series 2

On 20 April 2023, the BBC confirmed that a second series of 6 episodes had been commissioned with filming to begin in Belfast in summer 2023 with a release estimated to be in 2024. Siân Brooke, Martin McCann, Katherine Devlin, Nathan Braniff, Joanne Crawford, Andi Osho, and Hannah McClean are set to reprise their roles.

Production
The series is written by Declan Lawn, Adam Patterson & Fran Harris. Director Gilles Bannier described the themes of the series to be "how you pass the baton to the next generation and how the generation that is reaching the end should share the experience." He added that "it is so important that people should share their experience and yet let the younger generations make decisions for themselves." Lawn and Patterson were both brought up in Northern Ireland and said there was a disparity between the older and younger actors as to their knowledge of the Troubles with Lawn saying "Our more established stars, John Lynch and Richard Dormer, grew up there and knew about the history of the Troubles…it was interesting to see how different age groups reacted to it. The level of violence was a shock to some."

Filming
The series was filmed completely in Northern Ireland with filming locations including Belfast, Dundonald’s Coopers Mill, and Bangor. Principal photography commenced in February 2022.

Series 2 commenced filming in August 2023.

Casting
Sian Brooke said elements of the role felt right to her because her father was a police officer and the script "captured the friendships within the job, and how important they are. How much time you spend with this person in a car. They spend more time with each other than they probably do with anybody else, in this tiny little office on wheels." She also spoke to serving officers, social workers and Belfast residents before filming.

Broadcast
The series was first broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom at 9 pm on Monday 27 March 2023 with the full series available on BBC iPlayer.

The series begun broadcasting in Australia on SBS. The series debuted Thursday, 18 May on SBS On Demand with all six episodes available to stream and played weekly 9.30 pm Thursdays, starting 24 May on SBS.

Reception
Anita Singh writing in The Daily Telegraph awarded the series five stars and said "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". Rebecca Nicholson for The Guardian also gave the show five stars. Nicholson said she was "engrossed", describing it as "well-crafted, fantastically tense, thrilling stuff", and "one of the best shows of the year“. Ian Acheson in The Spectator called it a "near perfect cop drama" that "that manages to humanise the lives of the men and women in the Police Service of Northern Ireland without mawkishness" that despite "some procedural howlers that have clearly been let loose in the service of the storylines", leaves viewers "in for a rare treat." There was a less positive review in The Independent with Sean O’Grady describing the central characters as either “loathsome or pathetic" and in some cases "both".

References

External links

2020s British crime drama television series
2023 British television series debuts
English-language television shows
Television shows filmed in the United Kingdom
Television shows set in Belfast
Television shows set in Northern Ireland
Television shows filmed in Northern Ireland
British crime television series
2020s British police procedural television series
2020s British workplace drama television series
BBC crime drama television shows
British detective television series
British thriller television series
Television series by STV Studios