{"id":415582,"date":"2026-04-24T17:49:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T17:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/415582\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T17:49:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T17:49:13","slug":"bbc-northern-irelands-bold-new-series-with-blue-lights-star-will-have-audiences-falling-in-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/415582\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC Northern Ireland’s bold new series with Blue Lights star ‘will have audiences falling in love’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blue Lights actor Diona Doherty’s new, original Northern Ireland rom-com Committed is in the works. The series centres around the romance between Doherty’s Julie Johnston and Peter Hooley (played by Schitt’s Creek’s Dustin Milligan). <\/p>\n

Described by BBC Northern Ireland Commissioning Editor Jason Butler as “a bold new comedy series” that “audiences are going to fall in love with” the synopsis reads: “[The show] follows Canadian Peter Hooley, a recently divorced accountant, who falls head over heels for Northern Ireland woman Julie Johnston after a whirlwind weekend in Toronto, and crosses the Atlantic to declare his love, only to discover he’s landed in an old-fashioned and eccentric rural Northern Ireland village that’s nothing like he imagined.”<\/p>\n

Expanding further on where the series will take the audience, the broadcaster shared: “[Committed is] about what happens in a relationship after the grand gesture, when real life barges in.
<\/p>\n

\"dionaBBC<\/p>\n

Diona Doherty in Blue Lights<\/p>\n

Related: Best streaming services UK 2026 \u2013 including Disney Plus, Netflix, iPlayer and Apple TV<\/a><\/p>\n

“At its core, the series explores what it means to step outside your comfort zone – and how people who are very different from you can make life far more interesting than you planned.”<\/p>\n

Committed, which was co-created by Keith Martin, Gerry Dee and Tim Loane (who also serves as showrunner), is already in production with filming taking place in County Down, Northern Ireland and additional scenes being shot in Hamilton, Ontario. <\/p>\n

The rom-com has also cast Derry Girls’ Ian McElhinney to star alongside Doherty and Milligan, as well as Blue Lights actors Dan Gordon and Patrick Buchanan. <\/p>\n

Joining them will be Muki Zubis (This Is Going to Hurt), Seamus O’Hara (House of Guinness), Athena Karkanis (The Handmaid’s Tale), Georgie Murphy (Gen V) and Chris McCurry (Belfast).<\/p>\n

\"dionaBBC<\/p>\n

Diona Doherty in Blue Lights<\/p>\n

“We’re so excited to share our abrasive but loveable odd folk and their daft wee community with the world,” said Keith Martin, executive producer of Fabel Productions, a production company involved with the project.<\/p>\n

“Wait until you see our amazingly talented Canadian and beloved homegrown cast. A dream!”
<\/p>\n

The series is expected to debut on BBC Northern Ireland in winter 2027 and air on CBC and the free CBC Gem streaming service around the same time.<\/p>\n

The new edition of Living Legends, a 100-page all-colour celebration of Sir David Attenborough, is here! Buy Sir David Attenborough in newsagents or online<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

TV writer, Digital Spy Janet completed her Masters degree in Magazine Journalism in 2013 and has continued to grow professionally within the industry ever since. \u00a0For six years she honed her analytical reviewing skills at the Good Housekeeping institute<\/a> eventually becoming Acting Head of Food testing. \u00a0She also freelanced in the field of film and TV journalism from 2013-2020, when she interviewed A-List stars such as Samuel L Jackson, Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson. In 2021 she joined Digital Spy<\/a> as TV writer where she gets to delve into more of what she loves, watching copious amounts of telly all in the name of work. Since taking on the role she has conducted red carpet interviews with the cast of Bridgerton, covered the BAFTAs and been interviewed by BBC Radio and London Live. In her spare time she also moonlights as a published author, the book Gothic Angel<\/a>.
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Blue Lights actor Diona Doherty’s new, original Northern Ireland rom-com Committed is in the works. The series centres…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[131124,1105,182330,1107,93,61,60,1135,182329,282],"class_list":["post-415582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-collection-latest-news","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-9d25342d-38c9-423c-9051-839dba365070","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-locale-gb","tag-shorttitle-blue-lights-star-announced-for-bold-new-bbc-series","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}