Blue Lights: Casting revealed for brand new BBC One police drama

Casting has been revealed for brand new BBC One drama Blue Lights.

Created and written by Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson, Blue Lights follows three rookie police officers working in Belfast, a uniquely dangerous place to be a police officer.

Siân Brooke (Sherlock, Good Omens), Martin McCann (Marcella, Sentinel), Richard Dormer (Game of Thrones, Fortitude), Katherine Devlin (The Dig, Vikings) and newcomer Nathan Braniff will lead the cast alongside John Lynch (Tin Star, The Fall), Jonathan Harden (Time, Unforgotten) and Valene Kane (The Fall, Gangs of London).

A teaser for the series shares: “Grace (Siân Brooke), a mother of a teenage boy, has made the decision in her 40’s to leave her steady job as a social worker to join the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

“Having previously worked in social care she straddles a fine line between the personal and professional. It’s the biggest gamble of her life, and just a few weeks into the job, she’s making so many mistakes that her decision no longer looks like a winning bet.

“Her fellow rookies are Annie (Katherine Devlin), who struggles with the fact that her chosen path may mean having to leave everything she’s ever known behind, and Tommy (Nathan Braniff), who is desperate to prove himself, despite being disastrously inept at the practical side of frontline response policing.

“All three are new police officers in their probation period with the PSNI, the odds are at least one of them isn’t going to last. The pressure is immense, but if they succumb to it, they won’t survive.

“Often the rookie officers don’t know the extent of the peril they are in, or who they can trust. What’s it like to have to hide your job from neighbours, friends and even family? How do you distinguish between who needs your help and who wants you dead simply because of the uniform you wear?”

Directed by Gilles Bannier (Trigger Point, Tin Star, Spiral) and inspired by extensive research and interviews, Blue Lights is an authentic, gripping and darkly funny drama about ordinary people doing an extraordinary job in a society that could spiral out of control at any moment.

Siân Brooke said: “I am so thrilled to be playing Grace in Blue Lights. There is something incredibly special that Declan and Adam have crafted in these scripts and I was hooked from the very first page. Belfast is the beating heart of this piece and it’s a city I’ve been wanting to work in for a long time.”

Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson commented: “Every writer wants to explore their own place, and their own society as authentically and as honestly as they can. We feel enormously grateful to BBC drama for letting us do that with Blue Lights. And to do it with a cast boasting so much new and established talent makes it even more exciting.”

Filming is taking place in Belfast and the surrounding areas. The six-part series will air on BBC One and iPlayer.