The hit police show is back for round two.
Hit police drama Blue Lights is back for its second season, with all six of the new episodes available to stream now on BBC iPlayer.
The cast of season 2 is once again led by Siân Brooke, Martin McCann, Katherine Devlin and Nathan Braniff, while newcomers joining the show include Frank Blake, Seamus O’Hara, Seána Kerslake, Craig McGinlay and Dan Gordon.
The series continues to have a strong sense of place throughout, but just where is it set and where are scenes throughout the show filmed?
Read on for everything you need to know about where Blue Lights is filmed.
Where is Blue Lights set?
Blue Lights is set entirely in Belfast, following the day to day lives of officers working there for the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland).
Co-creator Adam Patterson said of the series: “We wanted to make a show that we were proud of, that people in Northern Ireland loved, and a show they felt represented the place we all love. We invested a lot of ourselves in the first series.”
Meanwhile, co-creator Declan Lawn added: “Blue Lights is set in a very specific place. It’s hyper local, yet universal in its themes. Everyone has started a new job, has felt under pressure, and to some extent, everyone has found a family that’s not their own family.
“These things affect all of us, regardless of where we are from, so perhaps that had something to do with why it seemed to resonate so much.”
Where is Blue Lights filmed?
As with season 1, the entirety of Blue Lights season 2 was shot in Belfast, Northern Ireland, with specific areas being used this time around including the Monkstown area of Newtownabbey and the Granton Park housing estate.
Other areas used for filming on season 2 included the city centre and the High Street, as well as Dundonald, which is east of the city.
The show’s creators have consistently praised the crew in Northern Ireland who help put the show together and, when asked what new steps they have taken for season 2, Patterson said they have “taken more risks in the way we’ve represented the areas we are filming in… whilst still retaining that authenticity and acceptability that pertains to representing a contemporary place like Belfast”.
He explained: “Some of what we’ve filmed has not been easy to show, because it requires us to look at ourselves deeply as a society, which is difficult because there are no easy answers.
“We are shining a light without giving the answers, which creatively is quite difficult, but if you have great characters at the heart of it you can accept that we don’t always need definitive answers. You just need to see how people react when they try to do something in the moment.”
Meanwhile, Lawn explained that Belfast is “more of a character in this series” than the first, and that “you see the full spectrum of the city” throughout the episodes.
Patterson continued: “Stylistically, in series two we wanted to evolve and show more of Belfast, and I don’t just mean having more shots of officers in Belfast, but standalone shots of the city that mean something to the storyline.
“We really worked hard to find the tapestry and the blanket imagery that would lead into our worlds and people, and that led to it feeling more visceral and real. We wanted to show more of this place that we love but that is still in many ways troubled.”
Blue Lights is available to watch in full on BBC iPlayer.
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