TV Pick of the Week: Blue Lights - review by Yvette Huddleston

Martin McCann as Stevie Neil, Sian Brooke as Grace Ellis, Katherine Devlin as Annie Conlon and Nathan Braniff as Tommy Foster in Blue Lights. Picture: BBC/Two Cities Television/Todd Antony.

Published 27th Apr 2024, 06:00 BST

The second series of this brilliantly tense police thriller set in Belfast is just as compelling as the first. Written by former journalists Adam Patterson and Declan Lawn, who both grew up in Northern Ireland, it has an authenticity that only lived experience can bring.

The narrative also benefits from a kind of journalistic rigour and forensic attention to detail. The first series followed three new recruits to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) – the peacetime replacement since 2001 for the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) – just as they were completing their probationary period. Here we catch up with them a year on and they are settled into the job. Fortysomething ex-social worker Grace (Sian Brooke) is now partnered with jaded, veteran ‘peeler’ Stevie (Martin McCann), who was her mentor in series one, and their relationship – both professional and personal – has clearly developed. Tentative romance is definitely in the air, although that does lead to complications in the workplace. Gentle, fast-tracking graduate Tommy (Nathan Braniff), has toughened up a bit, while streetwise Annie (Katherine Devlin) has become more sensitive and less gung-ho.

The team are tackling a feud that is developing between two rival loyalist drug gangs who are competing for territory. As the tension begins to escalate the police are caught in the middle with the complicated task of attempting to calm the situation while also investigating the supply chain that has led to a steep rise in drug-related deaths. Resources are stretched to the limit, which can lead to mistakes and errors of judgement. The script addresses the wider picture of the social impact of cutbacks not only in policing but in healthcare too and more general support in the community.

Martin McCann as Stevie Neil and Sian Brooke as Grace Ellis in Blue Lights. Picture: BBC/Two Cities Television.

This time we also learn a little more about the protagonists’ lives outside of work, deftly interwoven with a couple of nice romantic subplots as Annie takes an interest in handsome new addition to the team Shane Bradley (Frank Blake), seconded from another unit, and Tommy summons the courage to contact a young woman he trained with and ask her out on a date.

A recurring theme that runs throughout is how the echoes of a violent past continue to impinge on the present. This is a post-conflict society where The Troubles still loom large, and sectarianism, while less all-encompassing, is still very much a part of everyday life; and the potential threat of it reigniting is never far away. Top-notch drama.