Blue Lights

“Home-grown story-telling – that’s something we do… like no other.” BBC Director-General Tim Davie made the claim while giving the Dan Gilbert Memorial Lecture at the Belfast Media Festival in mid-November.

One hundred years after the first BBC broadcast from Northern Ireland, Davie was launching the BBC Economic Impact Report for Northern Ireland. It revealed that the corporation invested £112m in the nation during 2023/24.

Over the past decade, Northern Ireland has emerged as the setting of choice for hard-hitting cop shows and gritty crime dramas. Its grey skies, beautifully bleak landscapes and violent history combined to create a distinct sense of place and a noirish backdrop for series such as The Fall, Bloodlands, Marcella and, more recently, Blue Lights. 

This summer, a quarter of a century after it first aired, BBC Four re-ran the first series of an unjustly forgotten British cop show. The Cops rarely makes the lists of best ever policiers, yet it’s as groundbreaking as The Sweeney, Prime Suspect, Between the Lines and Line of Duty.

Cathy’s (Scholey) life is turned upside down when she spots Michael (Morgan) outside a supermarket. 20 years ago, Michael was convicted for the murder of Cathy’s brother. Now out of prison on early release, Michael has managed to start a family and build a successful career, to Cathy’s horror.

Blue Lights

Monday

BBC One, 9.00pm

A year after Blue Lights launched to five-star reviews, Belfast’s rookie cops are back out on patrol in Adam Patterson and Declan Lawn’s wonderfully human BBC One drama.

Second time around, the police officers are less green and more frazzled, but still trying to keep the peace in a city flooded with cheap drugs peddled by paramilitary gunmen turned gangsters.

Over the past year or so I’m sure many of you reading this have enjoyed the likes of Blue Lights, The Responder, Happy Valley and The Way. All huge BBC dramas. They have something else in common – they’re rooted in towns and cities across the UK.

This is no accident. In March 2021, we laid out our “Across the UK” blueprint for the BBC’s biggest transformation in decades, designed to move more of our programming and decision-making across the UK. The goal: to bring us closer to our audiences.

The show follows three new recruits to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). For Grace, Annie and Tommy, every day is different, and none are easy. The first series followed them on their probation period as they got to grips with the job, including dealing with the criminal McIntyre gang.