‘I knew it was special’
Blue Lights star Sian Brooke speaks to TV writer Sam Cook
IT’S the police drama that has taken the nation by storm, with some people even calling it the “next Line of Duty” – and one person who’s delighted about it is Blue Lights star Sian Brooke. “It’s everything that you would want when you make a programme,” she says in an interview with our website Walesonline’s podcast In the Spotlight.
In the BBC drama, which recently returned for its second series, Sian plays one of the series leads, Constable Grace Ellis. Blue Lights follows three probationary police o cers in the Police Service of Northern Ireland assigned to the ctional Blackthorn Station in Belfast.
Sian, who was born in Sta ordshire to Welsh parents, adds: “I read the scripts and knew it was quite a special and unique take on policing, and also quite an amazing story to be able to tell.
“It has resonated with people and they’re all taking it into their hearts, which is a really fantastic thing.”
According to the actress, who is also known for her roles in Sherlock and Good Omens, the decision to take on the role started with the script.
Blue Lights is the brainchild of Northern Irish writers Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson.
“ey wanted to be able to tell this story authentically because it’s so very much rooted [in Belfast],” Sian says. “I felt that we were really safe with them.
“We had an incredible director on the rst series, a French director named Gilles Bannier. As soon as I started having conversations with him, I knew I wanted to work with him because he was somebody I knew would push you that little bit more. He was a true actor’s director in terms of just enjoying the craft and giving you the ability to play.”
Sian’s character Grace is a mother in her 40s, who left her job as a social worker to join the police service. One of her key storylines sees her wonder if she has made the right decision.
Of her character, Sian says: “She’s just one of the most brilliant characters that I’ve played to date in that she is courageous, determined and awed. She makes mistakes, but that’s because she tries.
“She stands up for what she believes in, even if that means that she gets in trouble now and again and doesn’t toe the line. Also, she’s a bit cheeky, which I like.”
As to why she thinks people have responded so
well to Blue Lights, Sian says: “ere’s an appetite to understand modern-day Belfast. It’s had a troubled past, but you don’t talk about it necessarily how it is now and how the dynamics of the city work. I think there’s an interest in that, to be able to discover that and understand it.
“I think very often there have been great traumas and amazing drama, but this is quite di erent in its take in that it follows the path of somebody starting out in a job, being slightly nervous and maybe not being totally experienced and con dent within that job. I don’t think we’ve explored that in police drama as much.”
Sian was full of praise for Belfast itself, where Blue Lights is lmed – even calling it a “character” in the show.
She explains: “It really is one of the most brilliant cities. If people don’t know it, you’ve got this beautiful countryside that rolls into the city and then the city rolls out to the sea.
“To lm there is fantastic because you have all this breadth of locations that you can use. You can be in the centre of the city doing a car chase in the morning and then out on top of Cave Hill or wherever in the afternoon.
“I think Belfast itself is a character within the show, and I think it’s quite a strong character.”
Sian’s acting career began in 2002 when she appeared in the American television series Dinotopia.
She initially joined the Lich eld Youth eatre at the age of 11 before becoming a member of the
National Youth eatre and subsequently training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, from where she graduated in 2002.
According to the actress, there was never any other career path she saw herself going down.
She explains: “I got the acting bug, I suppose, when I was about 12. ere was a really big amateur dramatic scene where I grew up, and so I got involved and that was it, really. I didn’t know I wanted to do it, I just knew that I loved it, and I loved the people that I hung out with who were doing who I was doing it with.
“I suppose the more I became involved, the more I thought that I might have the chance of making this a career, but I was always in the knowledge that it’s quite hard to do that.
“It was a wonderful woman that took me under her wing and gave me the con dence to be able to try for drama school and all of that. At every stage, I thought, I’m not going to get in.
“She told me, ‘You absolutely will audition and you absolutely will try for it.’ ankfully, I managed to get a place there.”
Over the course of her career, which has included numerous roles on stage and screen, Sian recalls how she’s had many “pinch me moments”.
Her highlights include landing the role of Juliet in Romeo & Juliet, working on a lm with Mike Leigh and appearing alongside her future Sherlock co-star Benedict Cumberbatch in Hamlet in 2015.
Sian, whose real name is Sian Phillips, took the name Brooke to avoid confusion with the fellow actress Dame Sian. She is the daughter of Welsh parents and growing up, she spent a lot of time in Wales. She still tries to make regular visits as her sister lives in north Wales. Her father was a Welsh speaker but Sian says she has only had limited opportunity to speak it herself.
She explains: “My dad didn’t speak any other language until he was nine or 10, and so it was always there – particularly whenever he was speaking to relatives on the phone. It was part of the background of my life. He never got the opportunity to teach us, so the only thing that I would pick up are the pleasantries, really.”
e second series of Blue Lights continues on Monday at 9pm on BBC One and on BBC iplayer.
See www.walesonline.co.uk to listen to In the Spotlight.
She’s just one of the most brilliant characters that I’ve played to date in that she is courageous, determined and awed