Blue Lights review: the BBC’s cracking new cop drama set in Belfast

This six-part series is well-crafted and often thrilling

Sian Brooke as Grace Ellis in Blue Lights
Sian Brooke as Grace Ellis in Blue Lights
(Image credit: BBC)

I wouldn’t blame anyone who felt they had seen more than enough cop dramas on British TV, said Anita Singh in The Daily Telegraph – but the BBC’s latest six-part thriller is a cracker. Written by Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson, who brought us The Salisbury Poisonings, Blue Lights doesn’t have “a duff line or an overcooked scene”.

The drama centres on three rookie constables in Belfast negotiating their more experienced colleagues on one side, the city’s criminals on the other, and dodgy intelligence officers in between. There are shocking incidents involving sectarian and drugs violence, but it isn’t relentlessly dark or political.

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