{"id":540860,"date":"2026-07-09T10:57:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T10:57:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/540860\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T10:57:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T10:57:22","slug":"bbc-police-procedural-branded-better-than-line-of-duty-gets-exciting-new-season-trailer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/540860\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC police procedural branded ‘better than Line of Duty’ gets exciting new-season trailer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hit BBC police drama<\/a> Blue Lights has dropped an exciting season four trailer. The Northern Irish procedural is due to return this autumn, with the broadcaster sharing a teaser clip today.<\/p>\n

In it, we see Constable Shane Bradley (Frank Blake) stop an elderly couple while driving as he attempts to improve Blackthorn’s crime statistics. However, the driver admits he hasn’t touched alcohol since 2003, and even that was a “mistake”, according to his passenger.<\/p>\n

Bradley then smilingly suggests he “be a bit more careful next time”.<\/p>\n

\"richard<\/p>\n

BBC<\/p>\n

Blue Lights follows officers in Belfast, and alongside Blake the new season will see the returns of Si\u00e2n Brooke as Grace Ellis, Martin McCann as Stevie Neil, Katherine Devlin as Annie Conlon, and Nathan Braniff as Tommy Foster.<\/p>\n

Richard Dormer is also returning as Gerry Cliff (despite his apparent death in season one), while Hannah McClean is back as solicitor Jen Robinson. Jonathan Harden returns as disgraced Inspector Jonty Johnson.<\/p>\n

The synopsis reads: “Three years into their jobs as response officers, Constables Grace Ellis, Tommy Foster, and Annie Conlon are operating at their limit, facing a new threat on the streets that the police can barely control.<\/p>\n

“Meanwhile the murder trial of Gerry Cliff exposes a dangerous and long-buried secret that leads to chaos both inside the police, and across the criminal underworld. As they grapple with big decisions about their future, Grace, Tommy and Annie must find the courage to face the greatest threat they have ever encountered: the truth.”<\/p>\n

\"martin<\/p>\n

BBC<\/p>\n

Blue Lights<\/a> has received acclaim since its debut in 2023, with The Herald<\/a> suggesting it is “better than Line of Duty”, while The i Paper<\/a> called it “the best cop show on British TV”.<\/p>\n

“It is an exceptionally well-executed, well-written, and well-performed streaming series that feels like prestige television while still borrowing elements from the classic case-of-the-week structure,” wrote Pajiba<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Metro<\/a> added: “Riding high on the back of several award wins, the third season proves this show joins the ranks \u2013 and longevity \u2013 of Line of Duty and Happy Valley, as long as it doesn’t forget its roots.”<\/p>\n

Blue Lights will return this autumn on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. Seasons 1-3 are available to stream on BBC iPlayer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hit BBC police drama Blue Lights has dropped an exciting season four trailer. The Northern Irish procedural is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540861,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[229846,229847,229844,93,129771,229845,61,60,34617,83778,229843,229842,282],"class_list":["post-540860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-annie-conlon","tag-bbc-drama","tag-blue-lights","tag-entertainment","tag-frank-blake","tag-grace-ellis","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-katherine-devlin","tag-line-of-duty","tag-shane-bradley","tag-tommy-foster","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540860","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=540860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}