April 9

Where does the story pick up in the second series of Blue Lights?

Blue Lights comes back to most of the familiar faces we met in series one but our world has expanded. We look at different pockets of Belfast with different crime families and how that affects policing for our unit. The story has also expanded in terms of where we find Jen who is no longer a response police officer. We saw her leave her role at the end of series one following the death of Gerry.

What is Jen’s new job and what made her take that particular career direction?

Jen is now working as a solicitor in a respected Belfast solicitor’s firm and she finds out she’s been made permanent. Like her mother Nicola, Jen trained to be a lawyer before joining the police force. It transpired that policing wasn’t for Jen and she quite rightly stepped back. We also learn that she hasn’t dealt with the events of series one. She’s thrown herself straight into work without having any counselling for the trauma she encountered and she buries herself in her work as a distraction technique.

How does Happy Kelly and Jen’s friendship from series one progress in this series?

In series one Jen didn’t like a lot of people but she recognised something in Happy that she wanted to take care of. A childhood friend of Gerry’s, whose father and brother were killed by a bomb in a chip shop in the 1970s, Happy has struggled to come to terms with that trauma and loss all his life. Jen gained Gerry’s respect by the way she looked out for Happy as Gerry had done. When Gerry died, Jen stepped in and took Gerry’s place. Happy is likely the only friend Jen has right now. As a result of this closeness Jen decides she wants to try and seek justice for Happy and through her job, she has access to records and documents that might lead to some answers and closure for Happy.

Has Jen’s relationship with her mother Chief Superintendent Nicola Robinson, improved?

In the immediate aftermath of Gerry’s death, Nicola and Jen seemed to come together but early in series two, you can feel something bubbling under the surface of their relationship. Jen is angry that her mother didn’t allow her to resign when Jen wanted to. She wouldn’t have been present at Gerry’s death and she wouldn’t have shot and killed someone if she had been allowed to resign. She will always question her actions on that day and so she blames her mother for that, rather than doing the work on herself.

What can we expect from Jen in this new role?

Jen’s focus is entirely on the case she is working on and as a result, she doesn’t fully work through the possible repercussions of her actions. She doesn’t stop to think what excavating the past like this will unearth. She gets a bit lost and there is real danger that her actions will cause more harm than good despite coming at it with good intentions. Jen starts digging in areas she’s warned to steer clear of and finds out things she shouldn’t. She is then faced with the challenge of how to handle this information in a moral way that’s beneficial to people and not harmful.

Why do you think Blue Lights resonated with the audience?

I think the authenticity and detail in Adam and Declan’s writing really spoke to the audience and it also rang true to people from Northern Ireland. The drama portrayed the landscape of Northern Ireland in a way that we hadn’t really seen before in a drama and that was appealing to audiences. The characters were fully formed and there’s such a wealth of detail that fans of the show found relatable.

What can audiences expect from the second series?

We will get to know these characters in a bit more detail and see their relationships grow stronger. We meet new characters with new challenges and there’s a lot more action in series two. Some great big dramatic set pieces that will look amazing. Slowly our view of Belfast is expanding and we are getting to meet more and more people from more corners of the city.