Viewers all say the same thing as Belfast drama Blue Lights returns to BBC One
The police drama based in Northern Ireland returned for a second series on Monday 15 April and it was a firm hit with viewers. Blue Lights, which is set in Belfast, follows the lives of three probationary police officers, Grace Ellis (Siân Brooke), Annie Conlon (Katherine Devlin) and Tommy Foster (Nathan Braniff).
The show returned and picked up a year on from the first series which aired in March 2023 - and for the rookies, there’s still crime to fight in Belfast. However, the devastating death of fellow officer Gerry Cliff (Richard Dormer) that happened at the end of series one, continued to affect the team.
As the new series aired, viewers took to social media to express how they felt about the first episode - and they weren’t disappointed.
One wrote: “#BlueLights picking up where it left off in season one. Smashing characters, crackling pace, dead witty script, high tension and mirth in quick succession. That hour fair flew by. Terrific”.
Another added: “Tense complicated relationships, great plotting, nice pacing, wicked dialogue and clearly defined characters - #BlueLights has it all”. A third simply wrote: “Loving the return of #BlueLights”.
In series two, for Grace, she moved in with colleague Annie in an attempt to take her under her wing. Siân said: "She needs to have someone there almost as a distraction to what’s going on in her life.
“What comes with that though is the frustrations of living with an adult who lives like a student but the dynamic between Grace and Annie is really lovely."
There’s also a will-they-or-won’t-they scenario between Grace and Stevie Neil (Martin McCann). Ahead of the series, Martin said: "Stevie wants to protect Grace from harm but that comes at a cost and we see how that plays out in the series."
But after a tense scene at the end of the episode on Monday 15 April at a pharmacy, Grace has seemingly put a stop any sort of relationship with Stevie.
Talking about the return of Blue Lights, writer Adam Patterson revealed: "One of the unifying themes about series two is how difficult it is to initiate change and our young loyalist rebel wants to change his home environment for the good but ends up having to do bad things in order to change that system".
Writer Declan Lawn added: "The central theme of Blue Lights is idealism v pragmatism which is in the DNA of the show and in every character. We all live in the space between the two; who we want to be and who we are.
“This series delves further into that. Everyone has ideals but they have to compromise them. It’s about the daily grind and what that does to you and how, as a cop and as a person, you can never be exactly who you want to be. It’s also about why family matters and if you don’t have a family, often you will find yourself quite lost."
