'Blue Lights' Season 4 to Bring Back Season 1 Fan Favorite
BritBox's sleeper hit 'Blue Lights' has started production on Season 4, and there are several faces, both new and old, heading to Belfast.
Every streaming service has a show that marks the moment when it took off: for Netflix, it was Stranger Things; for Disney+, The Mandalorian; for Hulu, The Handmaid’s Tale. Even more niche services, like AMC+, can point to Interview with a Vampire as its turning point, or Harry Wild for Acorn TV. For BritBox, that moment came when it announced in December 2023 that it had secured the rights to Blue Lights.
Most American reviewers tend to see Blue Lights as the U.K.’s answer to The Wire. While on the surface, that doesn’t seem like a fair comparison, on some level, they’re not wrong. The Wire started on HBO as a show akin to Homicide: Life on the Streets, episodic copaganda painting those who serve as trying their best in a machine that does not care for human life. Blue Lights also started as a copaganda series with a black-humor bent, following middle-aged Grace Ellis (Siân Brooke), who completely upends her family by deciding that the solution to empty nest syndrome is to join the Belfast police force.
But a 40-something mum surrounded by men and women half her age (and with barely a tenth of her life experience), trying to patrol the streets of Northern Ireland, was merely the entry point. Over the show’s three seasons, the series has dug into the legacy of the Irish Troubles, much of which centered in and around Belfast. The PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland) was, for decades, a hotbed of racist oppression, and though it’s been a quarter century since the Good Friday Accords, that legacy still weighs heavily over the city.
Season 3 of Blue Lights debuted during our hiatus, so we didn’t get to review it. However, partly due to BritBox’s collaboration with HBO, which put the show’s first two seasons on HBO Max over the summer, Season 3 was by far the most-watched (and well-reviewed) on BritBox so far.
Season 4 is already prepared to capitalize on that success, in part because the BBC greenlit Seasons 3 and 4 right after BritBox picked up the show two years ago. The long lead time has allowed the show to build an ensemble across the Belfast landscape that will come full circle as Season 1’s most popular character, Gerry Cliff, played by Richard Dormer (COBRA), returns for the first time since his exit at the end of the first season’s finale.
Here’s the Season 4 synopsis:
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. 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.
Brooke will once again be joined by the show’s lead ensemble of officers, with Martin McCann as Stevie, Katherine Devlin as Annie, and Nathan Braniff as Tommy. The series also stars Joanne Crawford (Outlander: Blood of My Blood), Andi Osho (The Sandman), Frank Blake (Say Nothing), Abigail McGibbon (Ballywalter), Dearbháile McKinney (Kneecap), and Andrea Irvine (Call The Midwife). Season 3 additions Cathy Tyson (Dune: Prophecy) and Michael Smiley (Bad Sisters) also return for the new season.
Dormer isn’t the only one returning to the show after a few seasons away. Jonathan Harden (Time), who played Inspector Jonty, will also reprise his role for the first time since Season 1, and Hannah McClean (Sick Note) will return as solicitor Jen Robinson after sitting out Season 3.
Series creators Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson once again co-wrote all six episodes, with director Angela Griffin returning to split helming duties with Sam O’Mahoney (The Wise Guy), with Brendan Mullin producing. Lawn and Patterson co-created the series with Stephen Wright; the three executive produce alongside Louise Gallagher and Nick Lambon for the BBC.
Blue Lights Seasons 1 through 3 are streaming on BritBox in the U.S. with all episodes. (Season 3 debuts on BritBox in Canada in May 2026; Seasons 1 and 2 are currently streaming there.) Season 4 is expected to debut in the U.K. in 2026 and will follow on BritBox in the U.S. and Canada in late 2026/early 2027.
