Blue Lights review: It’s an undeniably watchable cop show – but let’s not pretend it’s the best thing on TV

A major ratings winner for the Beeb, the series picked up glowing reviews, numerous award nominations and ­— here’s the clincher — a green light for not one, not two, but three further seasons. That sort of carry-on is almost entirely unheard of.

The money managers are confident about this one, and confidence is something that oozes from Blue Lights.

You can hear it in the dialogue, you can see it in the performances, the set-pieces, those gripping, tension-fuelled moments when it looks like Constable Grace Ellis (Siân Brooke) and her team might not make it home for dinner.

Blue Lights, then, is undeniably watchable, sometimes thrilling. Most of the time, however, it’s just, um, well, how should I put this? Ordinary? Yes, ordinary covers it.

Predictable, too — and frustratingly slow in parts. You wonder what, exactly, separates it from other primetime cop shows, or how it managed to trick its audience into thinking it’s something that it’s not. Is it because Blue Lights is swearier, and considerably more violent? Maybe.

Season two picks up a year after the first one ended. The McIntyre crime empire is no more, and Constable Gerard Cliff (the great Richard Dormer) is no longer with us.

Poor Gerry was killed off in the first season, which is a shame because Dormer’s character was perhaps the best thing about this show.

The newcomers, meanwhile, are no longer newcomers. Probation season is well and truly over, but the training never stops, and when we check back in with Grace and her fellow PSNI officers, they are in the middle of a terrifying public order exercise, after which a mouthy superior warns them that if they don’t start using their heads, they’ll never survive the real thing.

The message is loud and clear: there is a storm coming.

Crime rates are at an all-time high in the city, and though the McIntyres are out of the picture, it looks like someone else has taken their place and turned up the volume.

All signs point towards a group of notorious Loyalist gangsters — and Sergeant Helen McNally (Joanne Crawford) and her team are struggling to keep the streets clean. Soon, the folks above her have no choice but to intervene. Enter Detective Sergeant Murray Canning (Desmond Eastwood) who brings in a new Constable (Frank Blake’s Shane Bradley) to assist.

Blue Lights Series 2 - Trailer

Canning also takes Tommy (Nathan Braniff) under his wing, but for what purpose? We’ll find out soon enough.

Meanwhile, Constable Stephen Neil (Martin McCann) is beginning to slip up. We know how he feels about Grace, and she knows it too, and their professional partnership remains intact, but for how long?

Meanwhile, Constable Stephen Neil (Martin McCann) is beginning to slip up. We know how he feels about Grace, and she knows it too, and their professional partnership remains intact, but for how long?

Stevie has started to let his feelings get in the way of the job — and Grace finally confronts him about it.

Elsewhere, Lawn and Patterson’s story occasionally takes the wrong turn. See, for instance, a routine domestic call that Constable Bradley solves with a charming smile and a complimentary pack of cigarettes for the unfortunate troublemaker.

For a series that often strives for authenticity, it’s a bogus move.

See, also, a romantic sub plot for Tommy who, after being told by Constable Annie Conlon (Katherine Devlin) that he “needs a ride”, decides to ask out an old work mate.

The Jen story, too, feels like something from another show, and Hannah McClean’s character is now working as a solicitor while secretly investigating an historical bombing in her spare time.

I’m a lot more interested in the introduction of a Loyalist pub owner (Seamus O’Hara’s Lee Thompson) and his worrisome sister (Seána Kerslake’s Mags) who are about to create a whole new world of problems for Grace and Co.

Just like last time, it’s all building towards something big — something explosive, even. And, just like last time, Blue Lights remembers the importance of a nail-biting set-piece.

The pharmacy hold-up sequence in Monday’s season opener was genuinely unnerving, and McCann and Brooke continue to work well together.

How long will they get away with the Grace-and-Stevie personal predicament subplot? Dunno. Will we still be talking about Blue Lights a year from now? That’s the plan, apparently.

But let’s not go about pretending it’s the best thing on the box. It’s perfectly fine.

​’Blue Lights’ continues Monday nights at 9pm on BBC One