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. All the characters in the story are either loathsome or pathetic, with some a mix of both. It does tend to mirror the politics in the province in recent times, incidentally, but that’s not really the point.
Blue Lights is the story of three probationary officers in the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), Grace Ellis, Annie Conlon and Tommy Foster, played with a kind of uncharming naivety by Sian Brooke, Katherine Devlin and Nathan Braniff, respectively. They spend much of their time getting stoned (not in the nice way) and being derided and mocked by their colleagues, who seem to resent the idea that anyone would actually want to do the job they do. Not a happy lot.
