With season four of Blue Lights expected to return to BBC One and iPlayer in September 2026, fans of the excellent BBC police drama are in luck, as its creators have landed a brand-new drama.
Titled D-Notice, the BBC has commissioned a new drama series from Blue Light’s creators and writers, Adam Patterson and Declan Lawn.
According to Radio Times, the new show will consist of six episodes, with filming set to take place in Belfast and London.
Described as “a surprising drama that looks at how truth and power speak to one another”, the series will see Patterson and Lawn draw inspiration from their past careers in the world of investigative journalism.
The drama will focus on the titular D-Notice, a voluntary request issued by the UK government advising journalists to withhold information deemed a threat to national security.
Following The Salisbury Poisonings and Blue Lights, D-Notice marks Patterson and Lawn’s third project with the BBC.
BBC
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Speaking recently about D-Notice, BBC drama boss Lindsay Salt told Deadline: “I wanted to make sure we were keeping them in the BBC because they are some of the best writers out there.
“We were talking to them about a few ideas and felt we hadn’t done a really juicy conspiracy thriller recently. They came back with D-Notice.”
Led by Siân Brooke and also starring Katherine Devlin, Nathan Braniff and Richard Dormer, Blue Lights follows a group of recruits to Belfast’s police force as they deal with the pressures of the job.
BBC
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Filming has already begun on the highly anticipated fourth series, with the BBC releasing a synopsis for the new season.
It reads: “Three years into their jobs as response officers, Constables Grace Ellis (Brooke), Tommy Foster (Braniff), and Annie Conlon (Devlin) are operating at their limit, facing a new threat on the streets that the police can barely control.
“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.”
The synopsis concludes: “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.”
Last year, Digital Spy praised Blue Lights season 3’s “deliciously evil new villain” as the show’s “best yet”.
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Harriet is a freelance news writer specialising in TV and movies at Digital Spy.Â
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In her spare time, Harriet paints and produces mixed-media art. She graduated from the University of Kingston with a BA in fine art, where she specialised in painting. She also has an MA in journalism from Birkbeck University.