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Blue Lights centres around newbie cop PC Grace Ellis (Sian Brooke – No Return, Stephen), who’s just retrained after a long career in social service.
Quite why she would is anyone’s guess, given that working in Belfast, each morning, she has to check her car for potential bombs underneath!
In the opener, her first job takes her on a high-speed car chase to a particularly undesirable housing estate which is more like a dead end, since despite trying to do her best for local nutjob Angela Mackle (Valene Kane – Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Death And Nightingales), the neighbours aren’t exactly as welcoming as Ramsay Street, as they think nothing of throwing endless bottles and cans at cop cars when they turn up.
Grace’s problem is that she thinks she can apply the same narrative from her old job to the new one, and still thinks she can help people who don’t want to be helped.
Along with a couple of other trainees who show up to a lesser degree, since they’re all trainees starting at the same time, there’s a scene where Grace is set up by her colleagues for sending an indiscrete message to a certain person. Then again, if someone’s used her PC because she hasn’t logged out while she’s away from her desk, then while it’s not thought of as an important matter to these characters, in reality, it’s a security risk, and a potential sacking offence.
That said, Blue Lights does deal with some darker issues of police being assaulted.
So, there’s a mix of comedy and drama in this, and it has its moments – as well as being pretty well-acted, but it is the kind of thing we’ve seen 100 times before, especially the “Ooh, look, they’re evil” McIntyre gang, who are walking clichés. They’re about a menacing as the Hell’s Grannies from Monty Python!
There’s also plenty of strong Irish accents, and there were no subtitles on the preview I saw. However, there will be on iPlayer, so I recommend putting them on.
Blue Lights begins on BBC1 tonight at 9pm, and the whole series is now available on the BBC iPlayer.
Director: Gilles Bannier
Writers: Fran Harris, Declan Lawn, Adam Patterson
Music: Eoin O’Callaghan
Cast:
PC Grace Ellis: Sian Brooke
Inspector David ‘Jonty’ Johnston: Jonathan Harden
Annie: Katherine Devlin
Tommy: Nathan Braniff
Stevie: Martin McCann
Gordy Mackle: Dane Whyte O’Hara
Jen Robinson: Hannah McClean
Angela Mackle: Valene Kane
PC Gerard ‘Gerry’ Cliff: Richard Dormer
Sandra Cliff: Andi Osho
Mo McIntyre: Michael Shea
Joseph: Nabil Elouahabi
James McIntyre: John Lynch
PS Helen McNally: Joanne Crawford
Aodhan McAllister: Matthew Forsythe
DS Murray Canning: Desmond Eastwood
Fogerty: Charlie Maher
Mark Blundell: Stefan Boehm
Alan Kelly: Paddy Jenkins
Nicola Robinson: Andrea Irvine
Geraldine Gilroy: Aoibheann McCann
Cal Ellis: Matt Carver
Barney: Frankie McCafferty
Rachel: Clare Gray
Kirsty: Orla Graham
Anto: Gerard Jordan
JP Junior: Isaac Heslip
Kill house woman: Bernadette Brown
Martin Corrigan: Michael Patrick
Paramedic: Keith Lynch
Belfast Tours Bus Driver: Andrew Porter
Armed Response Officer: Catherine Rees
Ellie: Ariella Neilly-Large
Constable Curran: Hugh Irvine (uncredited)
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.