TV WEEK THESE ROOKIE COPS ARE SCARILY REAL

‘Designing a shop is about seduction. You need to entice your customer in.’

BLUE LIGHTS MONDAYS, BBC1

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The first series of this no-frills cop show, set in Belfast, was highly praised for its verisimilitude. A wellwritten combination of adrenalised high-stakes policing and leisurely scenes of colleagues chatting in cars was a winner partly because it looked a lot like what we can imagine working in the police is like.

Factor in the specifics of wearing a British uniform in Northern Ireland and, while the world is clearly not short of police procedurals, I wasn’t surprised when the show became one of the biggest hits of 2023. Fans of Line Of Duty (with which it shares producer Stephen Wright) and Happy Valley had clearly found themselves another bunch of cleverly crafted characters to care about – and plots to make you think.

Back for a second series (there are at least two more en route), we’re still following three new-ish cops, one year on: Grace (Siân Brooke), a fortysomething empty-nester exsocial worker; Annie (Katherine Devlin), a young Catholic constable who is now Grace’s lodger; and fasttrack probationer Tommy (Nathan Braniff), who, having lost his mentor in tragic circumstances at the end of series one, has been struggling.

From differing perspectives, the rookies are learning on the job about Belfast’s criminal gangs, drugs turf wars and ever-simmering sectarian tensions. The drama is both successfully touchy-feely (Grace’s department) and no-holds-barred terrifying, while the dialogue is often bracingly bleak: ‘These last six months it’s just desperate people screaming at me,’ admits the female pharmacist who hits the panic button from behind her Plexiglass window. Mind you, she soon suffers far worse than that.

A lot is packed into the first episode, the weakest parts of which are the opening scenes when it’s clear (well, it was to me) that the ‘riots’ are a training exercise, specifically ‘one of the worst public order training performances that I have ever seen’, according to the senior officer watching: everybody would have died.

Happily, it’s more engrossing – and plausible – from here on: Grace and her partner (though for how long the partnership will remain professional is moot) Stevie (Martin Mccann) investigate the fatal drugs overdose of ex-soldier Ian ‘Soupy’ Campbell – I’m assuming drugs will be a series theme, alongside rising paramilitary crime stats. Sergeant Sandra Cliff

(Andi Osho) is – series one spoiler warning! – still doing the job while mourning her husband Gerry, who was, of course, Tommy’s mentor. And that’s just for starters. Characters are finely tuned and dialogue crackles: ‘Don’t get all social work-y on me now,’ Stevie warns Grace. ‘Social work-y? You are such a d***head.’

While it’s not short on plot, Blue Lights’ good news is unsurprisingly pretty thin on the ground. Given how gritty real life feels right now, it would be entirely understandable for viewers to look elsewhere for their TV kicks. However, seesawing deftly as it does between the banal and the breathtaking, this is great telly.

L-r: Tommy, Annie and Grace