| Worth seeing: | for a mixture of high octane action scenes and talky introspection that feels a little less focused than the previous seasons |
| Featuring: | Andi Osho, Dearbháile McKinney, Frank Blake, Joanne Crawford, Katherine Devlin, Martin McCann, Nathan Braniff, Sian Brooke, Abigail McGibbon, Andrea Irvine, Aoibheann McCann, Cathy Tyson, Frankie McCafferty, Hannah McClean, Jonathan Harden, Leem Lubany, Matthew Forsythe, Michael Shea, Michael Smiley, Orla Mullan, Paddy Jenkins, Richard Dormer, Seamus O'Hara, Tabitha Smyth |
| Key crew: | Angela Griffin, Sam O'Mahony, Amanda Black, Brendan Mullin, Adam Patterson, Bronagh Taggart, Declan Lawn, Morna Regan, Noel McCann |
| Channel: | BBC iPlayer, BBC1 |
| Length: | 59 minutes |
| Episodes: | 6 |
| Broadcast date: | 29th September 2026 |
| Country: | UK |
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
On our fourth visit to Blackthorn police station in Belfast, the new recruits we met back in Season 1 are now fully operational – some moving up the ranks or taking on new roles.
But as the officers are feeling more confident in their jobs, financial pressures are putting the future of the police station itself under threat.
Out on the streets, an anti-migrant group is threatening a local immigration centre, suspects in the murder of one of their own officers are about to go on trial, local paramilitary gangs are planning a drug smuggling operation and a scandal about the use of IRA informants during the Troubles is simmering beneath the surface.
There’s never a quiet moment for the officers of Blackthorn Station.
WHAT’S IT LIKE?
By now, we’re used to the big set-piece action sequences that Blue Lights has thrown up – involving republican gangs, loyalists, plots against the officers themselves, their interpersonal relationships and echoes of Troubles bouncing off every wall.
Season 4 looks like it’s going to be about threats made against the migrant community, as it opens with a siege at an immigration centre that matches the expected level of tension from the team.
But this slips back into the shadows a bit, becoming more of a sub-plot, as the future of the police station comes to the forefront – and then disappears for a while, to allow some figures from earlier seasons to come back to hold the bosses to account. And that’s not the half of it.
With no single story arc to carry across the six episodes, it lacks the focus of the earlier seasons and some potentially strong plotlines feel rushed; it’s as if they’re worried this might be the last time we visit Blackthorn, so they want to tie up all the loose ends, which itself feels conveniently arch.
And as if there’s a lot to squeeze into just six hours, oddly, one episode is almost entirely a flash-back to a period, not too long before the original series began, which gives fruit to a key piece of evidence for one of the storylines – but it’s a key piece of evidence that could very easily have emerged through a single scene in another episode.
Then there’s the one problem that’s run through Blue Lights like the branding of a stick of rock – despite everything that’s going on in this part of Belfast, we only ever see handful of officers doing anything about it; in the morning briefing, we see that there are loads of other officers at Blackthorn, but the core team seem to be running themselves ragged, while the others do nothing – by the end of it, the desk sergeant has to get back on the beat – no wonder the police station is under threat.
Part of the charm of the earlier series was watching the bumbling rookies as they found their feet – in one of the most dangerous areas for experienced police, let along beginners, so the loss of its unique selling point is disappointing, but inevitable. On the flipside, the more we get to know the key characters, the more entertaining it is to spend time with them and see their relationships and their careers develop. There are a handful of well choreographed action scenes – although this season is more about the introspection than the action.
But even when it’s not firing on all cylinders – or perhaps trying to file on too many cylinders – Blue Lights is still a cut above most of the rest of the current collection of TV drama.