Blue Lights is "back with a bang" as BBC viewers praise season 4 premiere

BBC viewers were thrilled last night as popular police drama Blue Lights returned with its fourth season - and if the first impressions are anything to go by, it looks like the latest chapter could be widely praised.

The new season of the Northern Irish series sees the central characters face a new threat on the streets of Belfast, while the murder trial of Gerry Cliff threatens to expose long-buried secrets within the force and criminal underworld.

With the first of the season's six parts airing on BBC One on Tuesday (29 September), fans have delivered their verdict on the premiere episode, and it seems that they are very pleased with what they got.

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"Blue Lights starts with people losing hope and then goes downhill from there. It's good to have it back," wrote one user on X as they called it "fantastic" in another post, while a second fan opined that it was "back with a bang".

"Aaaaagh, must resist every temptation to go straight onto Episode 2 of Blue Lights on iPlayer. That cliffhanger was too good!!," added one pleased viewer, while a fourth noted that the series was "smashing it".

This sentiment was echoed by another viewer, who wrote: "I'll be honest I normally flick from channel to channel, but what I watched tonight was brilliant. Didn't flick once, thought I'd give it a chance, it didn't disappoint was good. Blue Lights was good."

Prior to the season premiere, actor Nathan Braniff - who plays the popular Constable Tommy Foster - teased that the latest batch of episodes would be among the show's finest to date.

"It's gonna be the best one yet," he said. "It's much more the same of the things that everybody loves about Blue Lights. And my character Tommy, for example, he's working out his relationship, and it's all a bit chaotic."

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Neil Keery, meanwhile, confirmed that the eagerly awaited season would be more action-oriented than before, with Braniff adding: "That's right. There [were] lots of big stunts, like pyrotechnics and flipping craziness."

In addition to Braniff and Keery, the latter of whom portrays Sergeant Lawrence McCloskey, the cast for the season includes Siân Brooke, Martin McCann, Katherine Devlin, Joanne Crawford, Andi Osho, Frank Blake and Richard Dormer.

Blue Lights airs on BBC One and streams on BBC iPlayer.

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Reporter, Digital Spy George is a freelance writer who specialises in Movies and TV. After graduating with a degree in Film Studies and Journalism from De Montfort University, in which he analysed the early works of Richard Linklater for his dissertation, he wrote for several websites for GRV Media.  His film tastes vary from blockbusters like Mission: Impossible and John Wick to international directors such as Paolo Sorrentino and Hirokazu Kore-eda, and has attended both the London and Berlin film festivals.