Blue Lights review: A tiresome look at policing in Northern Ireland

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy It seems unkind to mark down any drama that tries to find its way through the continuing tensions in Northern Ireland, but the problem with BBC One’s Blue Lights is that there’s no one to really root for. Blue Lights is the story of three probationary officers in the Police Service of Northern Ireland, Grace Ellis, Annie Conlon and Tommy Foster, played with a kind of uncharming naivety by Sian Brooke, Katherine Devlin and Nathan Braniff, respectively. This is especially true of probationary police officer Grace Ellis, who, despite warnings from the security services and her more worldly wise colleagues, insists on wanting to “help” Angela and her boy Gordy, a foul-mouthed petty criminal who seems to enjoy being an apprentice monster. The British spooks keep trying to tell the goofing wannabe PSNI plods that the Mackles are “OOB”, out of bounds, but Ellis, previously a social worker, wants to make her corner of Northern Ireland a nicer place, even if it means blowing the cover on an MI5 covert operation.