BLUE LIGHTS
Mondays, BBC1
Rating:
The first series of this no-frills cop show, set in Belfast, was highly praised for its verisimilitude. A well-written combination of adrenalised high-stakes policing and leisurely scenes of colleagues chatting in cars was a winner partly because it looked a lot like what we can imagine working in the police is like.
Factor in the specifics of wearing a British uniform in Northern Irelandand, while the world is clearly not short of police procedurals, I wasn’t surprised when the show became one of the biggest hits of 2023.
Fans ofLine Of Duty (with which it shares producer Stephen Wright) and Happy Valley had clearly found themselves another bunch of cleverly crafted characters to care about – and plots to make you think.
Produced by Line of Duty's Stephen Wright, Blue Lights, which stars Siân Brooke as Grace (right),Katherine Devlin as Annie (centre) andNathan Braniff as Tommy (left), is back for a second series
Back for a second series (there are at least two more en route), we’re still following three new-ish cops, one year on: Grace (Siân Brooke), a fortysomething empty-nester ex-social worker; Annie (Katherine Devlin), a young Catholic constable who is now Grace’s lodger; and fast-track probationer Tommy (Nathan Braniff), who, having lost his mentor in tragic circ*mstances at the end of series one, has been struggling.
From differing perspectives, the rookies are learning on the job about Belfast’s criminal gangs, drugs turf wars and ever-simmering sectarian tensions.
The drama is both successfully touchy-feely (Grace’s department) and no-holds-barred terrifying, while the dialogue is often bracingly bleak: ‘These last six months it’s just desperate people screaming at me,’ admits the female pharmacist who hits the panic button from behind her Plexiglass window. Mind you, she soon suffers far worse than that.
A lot is packed into the first episode, the weakest parts of which are the opening scenes when it’s clear (well, it was to me) that the ‘riots’ are a training exercise, specifically ‘one of the worst public order training performances that I have ever seen’, according to the senior officer watching: everybody would have died.
Happily, it’s more engrossing – and plausible – from here on: Grace and her partner (though for how long the partnership will remain professional is moot) Stevie (Martin McCann) investigate the fatal drugs overdose of ex-soldier Ian ‘Soupy’ Campbell – I’m assuming drugs will be a series theme, alongside rising paramilitary crime stats.
Sergeant Sandra Cliff (Andi Osho) is – series one spoiler warning! – still doing the job while mourning her husband Gerry, who was, of course, Tommy’s mentor. And that’s just for starters.
UK writer Kathryn Flett (pictured) was a huge fan of Blue Lights
Characters are finely tuned and dialogue crackles: ‘Don’t get all social work-y on me now,’ Stevie warns Grace. ‘Social work-y? You are such a d***head.’
While it’s not short on plot, Blue Lights’ good news is unsurprisingly pretty thin on the ground. Given how gritty real life feels right now, it would be entirely understandable for viewers to look elsewhere for their TV kicks. However, seesawing deftly as it does between the banal and the breathtaking, this is great telly.
Dan’s the man to talk about men
DANNY DYER: HOW TO BE A MAN
Channel 4
Rating:
Danny Dyer’s sufficiently in touch with his own masculinity to take all the, er, balls and run with them in this two-part documentary about so-called ‘toxic masculinity’.
And while no sentence was devoid of the F-word, the unalloyed ‘Diamond Geezer’ (descendant of Henry VIII’s adviser Thomas Cromwell and friend of the late playwright Harold Pinter) is decent, grounded and softer round his middle-aged edges now he’s a grandad.
Danny Dyer, pictured with his daughter Dani, presents Channel 4's two-part documentary about ‘toxic masculinity’
Meanwhile, his earnest blokey-ness is punctured by daughter Dani: ‘You love a cuddle, you love a chat… and crying at Miley Cyrus films, we won’t go into that!’
Attempting to understand the problems faced by men who don’t have a blueprint for successful 21st-century masculinity, Dyer meets a confused (and misogynistic) young social media star.
He also visits a refuge for men suffering from domestic abuse and a Jungian men’s retreat (replete with yoga and beards). However, his conversation with a father whose ex murdered their son is a very tough watch.
Throughout, interesting issues are raised (and stats proffered), but the ‘authored documentary’ style – and the title – are potentially misleading. Though his sincerity isn’t in doubt, Dyer the actor does seem to be working from a script.
Put your feet up, Michael
‘Lagos,’ admits Michael Palin, ‘is not for the faint-hearted.’ At times it looks as if Africa’s biggest city could get the better of him on Michael Palin In Nigeria (Tuesdays, Ch5).No wonder: he’s 80, and 60 per cent of Nigeria’s population is under 25.
Michael Palin (pictured) explores Lagos, Africa's biggest city, in Channel 5's Michael Palin In Nigeria
Palin is still good company, but his latest expedition highlights just how much on-screen energy is required to make an engaging travelogue. Could it be time for Palin to put his feet up?
Opinions divide over Ripley (Netflix). Some love the ‘film noir’ palette, others think it’s pretentious. Some love the casting, others feel nostalgic for Matt Damon, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow in Anthony Minghella’s 1999 movie version of the Patricia Highsmith novel.
I’ve enjoyed it – however, the cast are more ‘wastrel midlifers’ than ‘gilded youths’; not quite as sexy! But Andrew Scott, formerly Fleabag’s ‘Hot Priest’, is mesmerising as Hot Sociopath Tom Ripley.
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