Blue Lights - BBC1 - started 27 March 2023 - binge watch spoiler thread

[IwantToRetire]

New police drama set in Northern Ireland is shown on monday 9pm slot.

Also available on BBC iPlayer.

Most newspaper reviews are raving about it, except for one.

Written by the same people who wrote The Salisbury Poisonings.

They first met as local journalists in Belfast.

I wasn't keen on episode 1 but I'm glad I gave it another chance. Have just finished the series and thought it was excellent.

Gerry is a fantastic character and a real shame he won't be in any future series if they happened. The chap that plays him is also brilliant in COBRA on Sky.

on the back of this i watched Good Vibrations, a film with Richard Dormer, which is a good watch.

Really enjoyed it. Not often Dp is pestering me to watch the next episode lol

The chap that plays him is also brilliant in COBRA on Sky.

I'd forgotten that. I kept wondering where I had seen him before.

I thought Cobra was quite interesting / thought provoking but some parts of the plot a bit predictable. https://www.sky.com/watch/cobra

I enjoyed it and hope there is another series.

Loved it. Kept waiting for the twist that Gerry was ok and they would use this opportunity to let him work undercover. I'm still in shock. I really wanted a second series but I'm not sure now that's he's gone.

The scene where Gerry's wife was booking in the murderers was brilliantly written and acted - so poignant.

I did wonder why they were charged with murder though when it was the long haired man?

Joint Enterprise

Loved it & was gutted about Gerry. Really hoped he’d survive. I said to dh what a nightmare being a PO in Belfast - I hope they’re paid a decent wage!
I have been to NI/Belfast in recent years - it’s a lovely part of the world & feels safe in the city/tourist areas. We did a taxi tour of the Troubles’ - amazing to see all the lorakist and republican graffiti, plus the ‘peace wall’ as it’s now called. When you go you really get an idea of what life must’ve been like at the height of the Troubles. We were told the wall was so high to stop /weapons (Molotovs I expect) being thrown over. See pic.

There have been some interesting articles about The Troubles on The BBC website, commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday agreement. I had no idea that the shopping centre of Belfast was fenced off from the early 70s to the mid 80s, with bomb searches being done before shoppers were allowed in.

I remember that @PussBilledDuckyPlait - you used to have to go through football style full body height turnstiles to get into Royal Avenue and then a soldier would search your bag. Security guards would also search you going into each shop. As it was all I knew, I never thought anything of it & just accepted it. The first time we went to England on holiday (think I was about 6) I felt so afraid that no one was checking our bags!

I was really shocked to learn the fence and searches had been in place for so long, @Gothambutnotahamster - thinking of how inconvenient people found it when we had to queue to get into shops during lockdown, which in the scheme of things didn't last long and wasn't even needed if the shop was quiet - and the people of Belfast endured something so much worse for so much longer - unimaginable.

It wasn't that bad & when it was your normal, you adapt easily enough.

The worst was the number of bomb scares when you'd be in shop changing rooms - I was a master of trying on clothes mega quickly and never really taking my own clothes off as no doubt as soon as you'd stripped off, there'd be a fecking bomb scare and you'd have to evacuate!

I guess you would get used to it, or if you grew up with it, it wouldn't seem strange. I'm surprised I'd never heard of it before now, as I like to think I have always been reasonably clued up on recent history, but clearly not.

I can imagine the panic of trying to scramble your clothes on in the changing room if the shop was being evacuated

That's what The Cranberries song 'Zombie' is about, how guns and bombs and fighting are normal in NI and we all continue on as if it's perfectly normal, because it is to us. Well maybe not so much now for the peace babies.

For anyone interested... this was the entance at one side of the city centre

I opened that picture up to look at it properly and my husband saw it and exclaimed 'Where on earth is that?' What a contrast between the armed soldiers and the folk just standing there calmly.

Interesting about 'Zombie' - makes complete sense to me now.

Listened to the Cranberries as I hadn't heard this track. Very striking and disturbing with the official video.

And was sorry to see paramilitary groups on the streets of Belfast this weekend, even if it was just young men / boys doing some sort of homage, rather than real.

But then it is only 4 years since Lyria McKee was shot. :'(

living and working in london in the 80s, there was often a stoppage on the tubes due to an undentified package for instance
but this was obviously nothing compared to northern ireland
but interestingly for many younger people in ireland, their history, is forgotten.

Wow, that’s full on!

@PussBilledDuckyPlait @JustDanceAddict I'm in my 50s so it was my 'normal' growing up and we were all really blasé about it. It wasn't that long ago that my friends and I talked about it all and realised that it must have been really scary for our parents

I'm in my 40s @kingsleysbootlicker and often wonder why my parents had DCs with the craziness that was all around them! Obviously glad they did and I had a very happy childhood but I can't imagine living through that and actively choosing to have children!

Loved this and have just read there is going to be a second series.

It's really interesting to read the first hand experiences of this as normality when growing up - thank you for sharing them.