Blue Lights star Sian Brooke: ‘Policing is in a very odd place at the moment – it’s been shocking to hear’

Not since Line of Duty has a British police drama so deftly and absorbingly picked apart the ethics and realities of policing as Blue Lights. Last year, in a television landscape teeming with procedurals, more than 6 million viewers were reeled into the BBC show’s depiction of frontline policing in Northern Ireland, with Belfast’s complex past, present and future pulsing through the series. At the heart of the show’s potent ensemble is Sian Brooke as Grace Ellis, an anomaly among her fellow rookies as a 41-year-old single mum and former social worker from the Midlands. “Now I’ve played her for a while, her gear doesn’t feel as alien,” says Brooke with a laugh. “Walking around with stab vest, truncheon and pistol, I felt less like the uniform was wearing me.”

The first series was a masterclass of explosive action and discreet character work. Brooke was superb as Grace, a woman forced to reconcile her, sometimes careless, professional instinct to intervene with the harsh realities of policing communities that are still dealing with the sectarian