In one of the best cop show scenes of the year, from the BBC’s gripping Northern Ireland-set drama Blue Lights, the police are doing everything in their power not to arrest the culprit.

A man’s husband has died from terminal cancer. His pain medication is missing. It quickly becomes clear to the attending officers that this grieving man is responsible. Their faces are a mixture of empathy and trepidation, as they realise the letter of the law means they have to bring him in.

No guns are drawn and the man’s rights are reluctantly read. This nuanced, complex approach to the idea of police work is precisely what makes Blue Lights, now in its second season and with a third and fourth already commissioned, one of the most compelling police dramas in recent years.

You like Line of Duty but wish the characters were a little more well drawn in their personal lives? Blue Lights is for you.

Like the comfort of British and Irish crime shows, but want a little more social realism? Blue Lights is for you.

Like the will-they-won’t-they romance of Rachel and Ross, Tim and Dawn, David and Maddie? Blue Lights is, believe it or not, for you.

When Blue Lights, co-written and created by Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson, made its debut in 2023, it earned widespread praise for its specific take on the tried-and-true police drama. Instead of seasoned, hardened and infallible cops, we were introduced to three rookies fumbling their way through their first few months of policing in post-conflict Northern Ireland.

Tommy (Nathan Braniff) is sweet and naive and can’t shoot straight, Annie (Katherine Devlin) is a natural-born rebel with an impulsive streak that gets her into trouble more often than not, and Grace (Trying and Sherlock’s Siân Brooke) is a 41-year-old single mum in the middle of a career change from social work. She wants to help people more than people want her help.