Blue Lights, series 2 episode 2, review: it’s a rare treat for TV to not treat its audience like idiots
So now we know what happened to Charlie from Casualty after he hung up his scrubs. Derek Thompson, the actor who played him for 38 years, popped up in Blue Lights (BBC One) as a retired police officer. It was a return to his roots: Thompson was born in Belfast and, pre-Casualty, he played IRA men in Harry’s Game and The Price.
Good to see him back on TV and proving that it’s never too late for a career change. Thompson’s character was involved in the investigation into a 1978 chip-shop bombing, which you may remember being mentioned in series one.
Blue Lights is a series requiring your concentration, which is one of the great things about it: the writers don’t treat the audience like idiots. The series is available as a boxset on iPlayer, but I think it’s best savoured in weekly instalments.
The “peelers” in Blue Lights are fallible but brave. A scene in which two of them rescued a family from a house fire brought to mind the real-life news story from a couple of months ago, when Essex firefighters refused to rescue a driver caught in four-foot high flood waters because they were only trained to go waist deep. There’s none of that health and safety nonsense here.
The force is dealing with a drugs epidemic and an escalating war between rival Loyalist gangs. “Men with guns who can f--- up your life or end it whenever they want” is how one would-be gang leader described the situation. Which is common to crime dramas from around the world, but the writing team root this very much in the specifics of Northern Ireland – such as the marching bands, put into use here to commemorate the life of a former soldier who had died from a drugs overdose, and also as provocation in a gangland feud.
This second series has a problem in that it no longer has Richard Dormer, who was such a charismatic presence as veteran cop Gerry. But it’s still the best police drama on TV. The relationships between the remaining characters are strong. Grace (Siân Brooke) and Stevie (Martin McCann) are trying and failing to keep their feelings for one another out of the workplace. Annie (Katherine Devlin) is striking up a romance with charming new arrival Shane (Frank Blake). And shy Tommy (Nathan Braniff) has plucked up the courage to ask someone out on a date, which turns out to be at a food truck in a car park, but that’s Gen Z for you.
