{"id":636653,"date":"2026-09-26T12:46:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T12:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/636653\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T12:46:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T12:46:19","slug":"the-writers-behind-blue-lights-i-think-i-fell-in-love-i-thought-i-have-to-work-with-this-guy-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/636653\/","title":{"rendered":"The writers behind Blue Lights: \u2018I think I fell in love. I thought, I have to work with this guy\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Screenwriters Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson have news that fans of Blue Lights<\/a>, their Belfast<\/a> police drama, might not wish to hear. The acclaimed BBC<\/a> series about a fictional Police Service of Northern Ireland<\/a> (PSNI) station will \u201ctake a beat\u201d after its upcoming fourth season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever iteration of the show happens afterwards, or whatever decision the BBC makes, great, but there\u2019s a sense in which we definitely want to step back and look at it in the round,\u201d Lawn says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the end of a chapter,\u201d says Patterson. \u201cDeclan says every season that it\u2019s the best season, but I might finally agree with him. I think this season is really beautiful in many ways and will give people a lot of satisfaction in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new six-episode run begins on BBC One on Tuesday in gritty fashion. Within 90 seconds, we\u2019re in the grip of a tense standoff as anti-migration mobs coalesce across sectarian lines to force a Syrian refugee out of her home. The storyline, made even timelier by this summer\u2019s Belfast race riots<\/a>, was conceived in June 2025 as violent disorder erupted in Ballymena, Co Antrim<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolice officers in the North were telling us that they were preparing for this to be a perennial issue,\u201d Lawn says. \u201cWe thought it would be kind of cowardly and remiss if we didn\u2019t try and tackle it, and it will probably be quite controversial, but that\u2019s fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

As former investigative journalists, they strive to hold a mirror up to the city, Patterson says. \u201cWe want to touch on something each season that is prescient about Belfast and also relatable to the wider world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blue Lights \u2013 produced by Two Cities Television and co-produced by Gallagher Films \u2013 was a breakout hit on its 2023 launch, attracting more than seven million viewers. The BBC swiftly commissioned a second season, which won a Bafta for best drama series<\/a>, and two more seasons were ordered in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did think in the [first-season] edit that it was good, and quite emotional, and we liked it. But we had no presumptions that everybody else would think so, because when you make a show about Northern Ireland, there\u2019s no guarantee that people in England or Scotland or Wales will care about it at all,\u201d Lawn says.<\/p>\n

Patterson mentions its international sales. (Blue Lights has been sold to more than 160 territories.) \u201cIt\u2019s really big in Spain, and that\u2019s kind of crazy,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you ask Dec and I if we\u2019re surprised by the magnitude of the success of Blue Lights, I would say we\u2019re kind of blown away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lawn estimates that the reception in the North has been 90 per cent positive, 10 per cent negative. Before it aired, he thought it might be the other way around.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Blue Lights review: This compelling show is a rare spark in the moribund world of Irish crime televisionOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a negative reaction because there wasn\u2019t enough of the DJ,\u201d Patterson interjects.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdam played the DJ in season three and he never shuts up about it,\u201d Lawn says. \u201cDeclan won\u2019t write me into any more scenes. I\u2019m very disappointed,\u201d says Patterson, sitting beside Lawn in the offices of their Belfast production company, Hot Sauce Pictures.<\/p>\n

This jokey rapport feeds into the authenticity of the series, which demonstrates their capacity for tonal shifts. \u201cDark humour is a facet of our society generally in the North, so we knew that if we were going to write a show in our own voice, humour had to be a part of it,\u201d Lawn says.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t grow up in a family where you had that tribal Northern thing, that understanding of the Troubles<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0Declan Lawn<\/p>\n

Patterson, who says he\u2019s \u201cmuch funnier than Declan\u201d, thinks humour helped them survive their journalism days. \u201cYou would often see terrible things and then get in a van and tell terrible jokes to try and make yourself feel a bit better. The police are very similar.\u201d<\/p>\n

When they were first approached by Stephen Wright and Louise Gallagher, their Blue Lights co-creators, to write about a social worker who becomes a PSNI response officer, they were reluctant. \u201cDec and I are not ashamed to say that initially we were quite petrified of taking on a show about the police here, because it\u2019s a hot potato,\u201d Patterson says.<\/p>\n

\"BlueBlue Lights: Martin McCann as PSNI officer Stevie Neil and Si\u00e2n Brooke, who plays officer Grace Ellis in the Belfast-set show. Photograph: BBC\/Two Cities Television <\/p>\n

\u201cVery divisive,\u201d Lawn says. \u201cDoing a cop show in Northern Ireland is not like doing a cop show in Dublin or London.\u201d<\/p>\n

They decided to go ahead after they met three groups of female officers and were struck by their youth and their bravery. \u201cWhen they talked about the transition from training college to being out on the street, we were like, \u2018Wow, that\u2019s fascinating.\u2019 They crossed through into another world. That\u2019s when we recalibrated and thought, right, let\u2019s make this about a band of recruits and follow them on this journey,\u201d Patterson says.<\/p>\n

In the series, Catholic recruit Annie (Katherine Devlin)<\/a> is targeted by dissident republicans for joining the PSNI \u2013 a storyline that echoes real threats faced by Catholic officers, who comprise less than a third of the force.<\/p>\n

Lawn describes Blue Lights as \u201cquite an oppressive responsibility\u201d. They are writing about the city they both live in, after all. \u201cEverything we\u2019ve done has had an element of risk. We\u2019ve looked at nationalist gangsters, loyalist gangsters, cartels and the middle classes involved in trafficking and grooming. Now we\u2019re looking at crime against migrants and what\u2019s behind it. So it\u2019s both a wonderful thing to be able to do and also scary at times.\u201d<\/p>\n

The show wouldn\u2019t get permission to film in certain areas if people were uncomfortable, Patterson says. \u201cIt\u2019s always a good thing when residents come out and try to meet the cast. You do feel that love.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA scene from Blue Lights season four, which is filmed in Belfast. Photograph: BBC\/Two Cities Television <\/p>\n

The actors have occasionally been mistaken for PSNI officers, Lawn says. \u201cPeople have said to us, \u2018There were so many police cars in our estate, I thought something terrible had happened, but it was you guys.\u2019 And there was an incident last summer when two extras walking to set [in uniform] were asked to give CPR to a guy who was having a heart attack.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortunately, both were trained in CPR.<\/p>\n

The fourth season opens with a script masterclass as viewers are introduced to three distinct yet related battles: the battle on the streets, the battle against \u201cpretty dire\u201d PSNI cutbacks and the battle to keep morale afloat.<\/p>\n

They speak to 20-30 officers before each season, and the loss of hope suffered by Grace (Si\u00e2n Brooke), the former social worker, reflects those conversations. She\u2019s the conduit for real frustration, Patterson says. \u201cEven the most idealistic person can be beaten down by the realities of working in a big bureaucratic machine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their working relationship is \u201cvery symbiotic\u201d. They research and come up with story outlines together, then Lawn writes the first draft. \u201cDec has been put on this planet to write dialogue,\u201d Patterson says. \u201cAnything visual or about actors\u2019 performances, Adam tends to look after that,\u201d says Lawn \u2013 when they direct, it\u2019s Patterson who \u201cruns the set\u201d. But they always give each other notes and suggestions.<\/p>\n

They think it \u201cprobably\u201d helped Blue Lights that they come from different backgrounds. Lawn\u2019s Catholic upbringing in Derry and Ballymena was \u201cslightly unusual\u201d. With a mother from Galway and father from Donegal, political talk at home looked towards the D\u00e1il. \u201cI didn\u2019t grow up in a family where you had that tribal Northern thing, that understanding of the Troubles.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DeclanDeclan Lawn and Adam Patterson, co-writers of BBC series Blue Lights, in Belfast. Photograph: Evanna Devine <\/p>\n

Patterson comes from a Protestant background in Dromore, Co Down. \u201cI had a pretty regular upbringing on the surface, like I went to a mixed school, played football with Protestants and Catholics. But my dad was a prison officer, so we had this thing that hung over the family. At the time, you didn\u2019t think about it, because that was just the way life was. It\u2019s only retrospectively you think, God, that\u2019s a bit mad.\u201d<\/p>\n

His father kept a gun and their home had bulletproof windows but, again, this seemed normal: \u201cAll we knew is that you didn\u2019t tell people what Dad did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lawn left the North to study English at Trinity College Dublin, after which he became a journalist. He didn\u2019t anticipate going back, but a job came up on the BBC Northern Ireland programme Spotlight. He has now settled in Belfast, but he spent 16 years working for the BBC\u2019s Panorama, which involved \u201ca lot of years\u201d in London.<\/p>\n

\u201cI literally ran away,\u201d says Patterson, who is the younger of the two. \u201cI just wanted to get out at 18. I felt like I needed to explore the wider world.\u201d<\/p>\n

They met in Wales in 2009 when Lawn was sent to Swansea to cover a story about water companies dumping sewage. Patterson, a photographer turned documentary-maker, had started on Panorama as an assistant producer, and they ended up on a big night out. \u201cWe were in this karaoke bar where I sang Stan by Eminem and I think Adam fell in love with me,\u201d Lawn says.<\/p>\n

\u201cHa ha ha,\u201d Patterson says. The next day, he filmed Lawn interviewing \u201ca reputable MP who\u2019d been in bed at 10pm, as opposed to Declan\u2019s 3am\u201d and wondered how he was able to ask serious, concise questions about environmental policies while hungover. \u201cAs he said, I think I fell in love. I thought, I have to work with this guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

They discovered they shared \u201ca wee bit of an itch\u201d \u2013 they wanted to become screenwriters. So they drank whiskey together and tried to work out how to break into it. They were so \u201cgreen and naive\u201d, the first script they sent to BBC was in Microsoft Word, not proper screenwriting software.<\/p>\n

They kept trying in their spare time until 2018, when they were getting enough work to quit journalism. It was still a gamble, but it paid off when they were commissioned to write The Salisbury Poisonings<\/a>, a well-received fact-based BBC drama that aired in 2020. \u201cFor the first time ever, instead of us knocking on people\u2019s doors, people were asking us to do stuff, and that changed our lives,\u201d Lawn says.<\/p>\n

The culture of TV drama resembles journalism, he finds, in that it\u2019s \u201cfull of very curious people\u201d who are often obsessive. Patterson thinks they can \u201cactually be more honest through dramatic storytelling\u201d, not least because some of their documentary ideas weren\u2019t commissioned. \u201cAbstract insights\u201d can be better suited to the emotion of drama, Lawn agrees.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re now \u201cgoing back to where it all began\u201d with D Notice, a six-part conspiracy thriller for the BBC. Partly based on their experiences at Panorama, it explores \u201cwhere we\u2019re at with fact and truth\u201d in a world swamped by competing narratives. \u201cYou see a lot of stories coming out that would finish someone\u2019s career 20 years ago. Now they just hold on for 48 hours,\u201d Lawn says.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Katherine Devlin: \u2018I had huge imposter syndrome filming the first season of Blue Lights\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

D Notice, their first project for Hot Sauce, marks a \u201creally exciting\u201d new chapter for the duo. They\u2019re no longer just writers for hire, directors for hire, but employers planning for the future.<\/p>\n

Their ambitions remain tied to home. \u201cWe really love the city. We want to build a place that means people can dream here and stay here if they want to be creators,\u201d Patterson says. \u201cWhatever we do,\u201d Lawn says, \u201cWe have aspirations to keep Belfast as part of the story.\u201d<\/p>\n

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