The BAFTA-winning police series brings back a season one villain as its officers face their biggest threat yet on BritBox.
Blue Lights, the Belfast police drama that has quietly become one of the best shows on British television, returns for its fourth season on BritBox on Nov. 12. The streamer has released the official trailer, and season four looks like the series’ most dangerous chapter yet, with six episodes rolling out weekly through the finale on Dec. 17.
Three years into the job, response officers Grace Ellis, Tommy Foster and Annie Conlon are running on empty as a new threat takes hold on the streets that the police can barely contain. At the same time, the murder trial of Gerry Cliff exposes a long-buried secret that throws both the force and the criminal underworld into chaos. As they weigh their futures, the three officers have to face the biggest threat they have encountered: the truth.
A Familiar Face Returns
The headline for longtime fans is the return of Richard Dormer as Gerry Cliff, the season one character whose story still shapes the series. Dormer, known for Game of Thrones and The Day of the Jackal, comes back alongside Hannah McClean as solicitor Jen Robinson and Jonathan Harden as disgraced former Inspector Jonty, in an episode promised to answer important questions from the past.
Sian Brooke returns as Grace, with Martin McCann as Stevie, Katherine Devlin as Annie and Nathan Braniff as Tommy. Joanne Crawford, Andi Osho, Frank Blake, Abigail McGibbon, Dearbhaile McKinney and Andrea Irvine are also back, along with Cathy Tyson as club owner Dana Morgan and Michael Smiley as intelligence officer Paul “Colly” Collins.
Why It Works
Blue Lights has earned its comparisons to Line of Duty by doing something different. Instead of corruption at the top, it lives with rookie officers at street level, in a city where policing is shaped by history in a way few cop shows ever touch. Creators Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson, both former journalists, write it with a reporter’s sense of how institutions really work. The series has sold to more than 160 territories through BBC Studios.
Lawn and Patterson write and executive produce season four. Angela Griffin directs episodes one through three and Sam O’Mahoney directs episodes four through six, with Brendan Mullin producing. The series is co-created and produced by Stephen Wright of Two Cities Television and co-created and co-produced by Louise Gallagher of Gallagher Films, with support from Northern Ireland Screen.
Blue Lights season four premieres on BritBox on Nov. 12, and the first three seasons are streaming now. Watch the official trailer below.
