Action, Humor, and Heart: A ‘Blue Lights’ Recipe For Success Brewed Up in Belfast

The first and most important thing you need to know about Blue Lights – returning for its second 6-episode season on BritBox this week – is Belfast. It’s set in Belfast, its co-creators and writers are Belfast natives, it stars actors from the greater Belfast metropolitan area, and it’s about life in Belfast for people on both sides of the law. The series’ first season introduced viewers to three brand-new PSNI constables, all of whom were serving the final weeks of their probationary period partnered with more experienced officers at a Belfast police station.

Throughout the season, kind-hearted and earnest Tommy (Nathan Braniff), former social worker and single mother Grace (Sîan Brooke), and talented hothead Annie (Katherine Devlin) grow into the kind of officers their tough, caring Sergeant McNally (Joanne Crawford) can be proud of. Experience comes at a cost, though: by the end of the first season, a mentor they all love and respect has been murdered, Grace’s biracial son has grown disgusted with the casual racism he faces every day at the hands of the police, and Annie has had to move out of her family home to protect her mother’s safety.

Ahead of Blue Lights’ second season debut, series co-creators and writers Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson, along with actors Braniff, Brooke, and Devlin, sat down with Telly Visions to chat about how much fun they’re all having, working on a gripping, intense show that’s near to overflowing with deep personal and societal meaning.