{"id":31328,"date":"2023-03-21T08:00:45","date_gmt":"2023-03-21T07:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1802065"},"modified":"2023-03-21T14:03:27","modified_gmt":"2023-03-21T13:03:27","slug":"blue-lights-writer-says-show-is-so-important-after-real-life-tragedy","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/blue-lights-writer-says-show-is-so-important-after-real-life-tragedy\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Lights writer says show is \u201cso important\u201d after real-life tragedy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Co-creator Adam Patterson spoke about how the new Belfast-set police drama reflects the “lingering threat” to officers. <\/p>

By James Hibbs\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 21 March 2023 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

New BBC police drama Blue Lights, set in the Police Service of Northern Ireland in Belfast, is an important reminder of the city\u2019s past, its co-creator has said.<\/p>\n

The series, which follows a group of rookie officers played by Si\u00e2n Brooke, Katherine Devlin and Nathan Braniff,\u00a0depicts the intense pressure on those working in the service, as well as the politics of policing in the area and the dangers the officers face.<\/p>\n

The series arrives on BBC One following the real-life attempted murder of DCI John Caldwell, an off-duty police officer who suffered life-changing injuries after being shot at a sports complex<\/a> in Omagh, County Tyrone.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a recent Q&A for Blue Lights attended by RadioTimes.com<\/a> and other press, one of the show\u2019s creators Adam Patterson paid tribute to Caldwell, saying: \u201cI\u2019ll obviously point out that very, very recently, just a couple of weeks ago, DCI John Caldwell was shot while off duty in front of his son.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think I speak for everyone who I know in the world and say it really felt like a horrible flashback from a time that we all thought we\u2019d left behind. But a reminder as to why the show is so important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>Patterson continued: \u201cWe can\u2019t just ignore the fact that there is still a lingering threat for these people that literally lay themselves on the line to uphold our civic duty. That\u2019s amazing, and we just love the police for that. Of course, they\u2019re a flawed machine; like many machines, they have their issues.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul><li><a href=\"\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/drama\/the-gold-renewed-season-2-newsupdate\/"\" target=\""_blank"\" rel=\""noopener" noopener noreferrer\">The Gold \u2018renewed for season 2\u2019 after hit first season on BBC<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/drama\/grace-long-running-mystery-resolution-newsupdate\/"\" target=\""_blank"\" rel=\""noopener" noopener noreferrer\">John Simm and Grace author tease resolution to long-running mystery<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>But the series\u2019s co-creator said it\u2019s \u201camazing\u201d that there\u2019s people who will put themselves in harm\u2019s way for others. \u201cI think a society can only survive through people that do that and that\u2019s amazing to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added: \u201cIt\u2019s a difficult thing to talk about. It\u2019s very easy when you think of Northern Ireland to think of good and bad.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a satisfying way to think of it for many people, because it means that they don\u2019t have to think of themselves that way. But the reality is, there\u2019s a bit of good and bad in all of us, and the way we write characters that hopefully will make you uncomfortable, because you\u2019ll be forced to recognise a bit of yourself in all of them.\u201d<\/p> <p>According to Patterson, the objective when writing But Lights was to challenge people\u2019s mindsets of the world around them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think if you think about the world like that, then you can actually move forward as a society. But if you lock yourself away and put yourself in a binary mindset then you can\u2019t. So our objective always in writing is to push past that and make people challenge themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The drama has been co-created by Patterson and Declan Lawn, and also stars the likes of John Lynch, Martin McCann, Valene Kane, Jonathan Harden and Richard Dormer.<\/p> <div class=\""brightcove\" embed=\"\"> <div class=\""embed__intrinsic"\"> <div class=\""brightcove__player\" vjs-playlist-player-container=\"\"> <video data-video-id=\"6322611624112\" data-account=\"69912529001\" data-player=\"ByeOf0VZEl\" data-embed=\""default"\" data-application-id=\"\" controls=\"\" class=\""video-js"\"> <\/video> <\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<script src=\""\/\/players.brightcove.net\/69912529001\/ByeOf0VZEl_default\/index.min.js"\"\/> <p><strong>Blue Lights will air from Monday 27th March 2023 at 9pm on BBC One.\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Check out more of our\u00a0<a href=\"\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/drama\/"\" target=\""_blank"\" rel=\""noopener" noopener noreferrer\">Drama<\/a>\u00a0coverage or visit our\u00a0<a href=\"\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/tv-listings\/"\" target=\""_blank"\" rel=\""noopener" noopener noreferrer\">TV Guide<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a title=\""https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/streaming-guide\/"\" href=\"\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/streaming-guide\/"\" target=\""_blank"\" rel=\""noopener" noopener noreferrer\">Streaming Guide<\/a>\u00a0to see what\u2019s on tonight.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Try Radio Times magazine today and get 12 issues for only \u00a31 with delivery to your home \u2013\u00a0<\/strong><a title=\""http:\/\/radiotimes.com\/magazine-subscription?utm_term=evergreen-article"\" href=\"\/\/radiotimes.com\/magazine-subscription?utm_term=evergreen-article"\" target=\""_blank"\" rel=\""noopener" noopener noreferrer\"><strong>subscribe now<\/strong><\/a><strong>. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to\u00a0<\/strong><a title=\""https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/audio\/podcasts\/"\" href=\"\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/audio\/podcasts\/"\" target=\""_blank"\" rel=\""noopener" noopener noreferrer\"><strong>The Radio Times Podcast<\/strong><\/a><strong>.<\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> Co-creator Adam Patterson spoke about how the new Belfast-set police drama reflects the “lingering threat” to officers. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":31329,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/03\/blue-lights-writer-says-show-is-so-important-after-real-life-tragedy-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/03\/blue-lights-writer-says-show-is-so-important-after-real-life-tragedy-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/03\/blue-lights-writer-says-show-is-so-important-after-real-life-tragedy-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/03\/blue-lights-writer-says-show-is-so-important-after-real-life-tragedy-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/03\/blue-lights-writer-says-show-is-so-important-after-real-life-tragedy-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/03\/blue-lights-writer-says-show-is-so-important-after-real-life-tragedy-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/03\/blue-lights-writer-says-show-is-so-important-after-real-life-tragedy-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Co-creator Adam Patterson spoke about how the new Belfast-set police drama reflects the \"lingering threat\" to officers.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/31328"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}