Television review: While Blue Lights acknowledges the faultlines running through post-Troubles Northern Ireland, it has broader things to say
, yet its arrival nonetheless feels like the gentlest spritz of fresh air. It’s a cop show set in Belfast that manages to be not entirely about the Troubles. Alongside the traditional misery and tension, it squeezes in humour and humanity. It has its cake while letting the cake off with a caution.
Up north, there is the “Troubles” factor. This decrees all police procedurals must be grim beyond reckoning. And that they will feature at least 20 minutes of urchins chucking petrol bombs at Land Rover Tangis. Blue Lights swerves these pitfalls – no doubt because its writers,Their script smartly focuses not on the conflict but on those policing the frontline. Siân Brooke is Grace, a social worker who joined the PSNI because she wants to do her bit for society.
Yet while the show is initially presented as a vehicle for Brooke – last seen as a Targaryen royal suffering a gory early death in Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon – the action quickly expands out outwards. There is, for instance, a scene-stealing part for Richard Dormer as jaundiced Gerry, mentoring the “fast track” probationer Tommy .
But by now Blue Lights has won our trust. It acknowledges the faultlines running through post-Troubles Northern Ireland. Yet it has broader things to say about policing, community and the wisdom or foolishness of trying to be an agent of change in the world.
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