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Fans of a BBC police procedural drama starring Siân Brooke can now stream the full series on iPlayer after the release of its third season.
Blue Lights, starring Brooke alongside Katherine Devlin and Richard Dormer, follows the staff at the fictional Blackthorn police station in Belfast.
Brooke stars as officer Grace Ellis and Devlin plays Annie Conlon, while Game of Thrones star Dormer stars as Gerry Cliff and Nathan Braniff plays Thomas Foster.
Beginning in 2023, Blue Lights attracted a solid average of 4.35 million TV viewers during its first season, with that number increasing to 4.48 million for season two.
The first two seasons both consisted of six hour-long episodes that each looked at the difficulties faced by the Police Service of Northern Ireland in the present day.
Now, ahead of the premiere of season three on BBC One on Monday September 29, eager Blue Lights fans can stream the entire series in full if they want to.
For those wanting to watch in a more traditional fashion, the next six episodes will be broadcast in weekly instalments on BBC One at 9pm every Monday.
Binge-watchers in the UK can get the whole new batch now via iPlayer, meaning that all 18 episodes can be streamed in full if you can’t wait.
Speaking about the drama on X, @SimonMontifiore said: ‘Highly recommended, Blue Lights is outstanding. Unlikely as it sounds, this Northern Irish police procedural is one of the best.
‘It’s up there with Wolf Hall, Snowfall and The English. Writing and acting are simply brilliant, poignant and very exciting. Superb.’
@SteveClarkUK beamed: ‘Blue Lights series 3 is outstanding – tense, twisty, brilliantly acted. A contender for series of the year. Big credit to Angela Griffin who directed half the episodes and absolutely nailed it.’
Speaking to the i Paper, Brooke said of her role in Blue Lights: ‘I was concerned the police genre was saturated when I first heard about the show.
‘But then I saw how fully formed the characters are, that even the smallest characters have real heart. That’s why the viewers care: they’re invested.’
What does Metro think of Blue Lights season 3?
TV Reporter Asyia Iftikhar writes in her 4.5-star review: As Blue Lights returns for an explosive third season, it’s obvious this Bafta-winning drama has cracked the perfect formula.
There’s no question why the BBC show, set in modern-day Belfast, has reeled audiences in over the past two seasons.
It offers a phenomenal cast to play out nuanced plotlines interweaving the post-Troubles politics of Northern Ireland, criticism of the structural issues rampant within the police force and the very human heart of the city’s underbelly.
Season three embraces a shift in direction as we look into the middle and upper class echelons of society, funding the drug trade in and out of the city and getting off scot-free.
Read more here.
She continued: ‘Plus, I think there is a huge appetite to understand what Belfast is like now. The city is so much more than we’ve been led to believe it is. It’s more complex and nuanced than just a hangover of the Troubles.’
Brooke revealed that her father was a police officer for 20 years in Staffordshire, adding: ‘I always saw beyond the cars and uniforms to the people inside them.’
The series has been released to positive reviews, with season one posting a score of 91% on Rotten Tomatoes, while season two climbed up to 93% on the same website.
Watch Blue Lights on BBC iPlayer.
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