A Numbers Game

Amid all the tension this week around Drumcree, we all need to unwind. Right?

So while we fret about how politicians and the police might handle the Portadown standoff, let’s grab some respite with a TV drama featuring a standoff involving PSNI officers.

But before we get into that, a quick reminder.

As usual, Slugger will be reviewing each ‘Blue Lights’ episode on the night it airs on BBC1.

So if you’ve binge watched all of Series Four today on the BBC iPlayer, please refrain from giving away plot details for the remaining episodes.

(SPOILERS ALERT!)

Series Four of BBC1’s police drama ‘Blue Lights’ got off to a frantic start.

The episode began with a bird’s eye view of Belfast before the drone camera eventually settled on a family navigating some terrace streets.

To the relentless beat of an Irish folk band, the drone swooped behind the trio as they entered the yard of a migrant community centre where a bazaar was being held celebrating different nationalities.

“Afternoon,” Constable Grace Ellis chirped as the camera spied her colleague and baking obsessed boyfriend, Sergeant Stevie Neil tasting ma’aoumi for the first time and guessing the ingredients of the Middle East pastry.

His culinary guessing game was interrupted, however, by a crowd of 15 flag waving loyalists who arrived in Matchhill Street, chanting: “Locals in. Immigrants out.”

One of them carried a gimbal and waved her smartphone in Grace’s face as she livestreamed the protest and spouted anti-immigration rhetoric.

Inevitably, after Stevie radioed through what was happening, events rapidly escalated.

Back in Blackthorn Police Station, social media monitors and CCTV picked up the arrival in the city of a group of tricolour clutching nationalists from Dublin making their way to Matchhill.

Alarmed by the prospect of a sectarian clash, Inspector Helen McNally desperately scrambled resources but with some officers committed to a covert intelligence operation, she was left with half the resources she needed.

Blackthorn’s intelligence guru DCI Paul ‘Colly’ Collins was also caught on the hop as he frantically tried to get the lowdown on the Dublin gang.

After being caught by DI McNally on CCTV robot dancing while on the beat, Shane Bradley was tasked along with his fellow Constable, Tommy Foster with keeping tabs on the Dublin contingent.

As the Southern gang arrived in the loyalist area, Colly got the lowdown from his counterparts in the Garda Siochana that they were anti-immigration protesters.

Much to the surprise of officers on the ground, the southern Irish contingent were allowed to join their Ulster loyalist counterparts at the protest.

This prompted Shane to quip: “it’s good to the see the aul peace process in action.”

With Sergeant Sandra Cliff, Constables Annie Conlon and Aisling Byrne arriving on the scene, families were ushered out of the community centre but Leem Lubany’s Syrian migrant Amira Saeed and a few other migrant community leaders insisted on staying put.

Blackthorn’s officers were, however forced to cede ground to the protesters when what little support Helen could muster from the Tactical Support Group was quickly overwhelmed by a gang of masked men dressed in black who had come to attack the anti-immigration protest.

Blocked by the riot squad, the gang pelted officers instead with stones, bricks, fireworks and traffic cones.

In the melee, Blackthorn’s Sergeant Lawrence McCloskey was isolated and beaten by two members of the mob.

Tommy and Sandra were called into action to perform CPR on the street on an unconscious anti-immigration protester who was hit with a brick.

When the PSNI eventually got on top of the situation, Helen was summoned to a meeting with her boss, Chief Superintendent Nicola Robinson and sat anxiously outside her door like a pupil waiting to enter the school principal’s office.

She was taken aback when Chief Superintendent Robinson observed after Helen listed all the failures that she had actually handled the public order situation impeccably.

Then Robinson declared her hand.

Revealing she had been encouraged to apply for the role of Assistant Chief Constable, the Chief Superintendent said she wanted Helen to join her in PSNI headquarters.

While Helen insisted she still had a critical role to play in Blackthorn, Robinson revealed there was a plan to consolidate PSNI resources.

With Blackthorn bottom of the league in crime statistics, she warned the Inspector that the station would in all likelihood be closed.

“It’s a number’s game,” she explained to Helen who was incensed, reminding her that their conversation was strictly confidential.

In a well written opening episode, ‘Blue Lights’ creators Adam Patterson and Declan Lawn set out their stall for Series Four.

With an eye to the real Chief Constable Jon Boutcher occasionally expressing frustration at having to deliver a service in Northern Ireland with diminishing resources, Lawn and Patterson signalled this is going to be a big theme this series.

The writers addressed the twin challenges of policing an increasingly multicultural Belfast and communities who are easily wound up and misled by racist, far right activists on social media.

None of these challenges are, of course, unique to Northern Ireland.

They’re faced by police services in England, Scotland and Wales and every part of Europe.

However as Patterson and Lawn highlighted once again, they present additional headaches for a police service that is still trying to cope with the hangover of a 29 year conflict and former paramilitary gangs that have become wedded to the proceeds of crime.

Directed with verve by former ‘Coronation Street’ actress Angela Griffin, this was one of the best episodes Patterson and Lawn have delivered.

It was sure footed, confidently mixing the personal with the political and it brought the best out of its cast and crew.

Series regulars Sian Brooke, Martin McCann, Katherine Devlin, Nathan Braniff, Frank Blake, Andi Osho, Andrea Irvine, Neil Keery, Michael Smiley and Dearbhaile McKinney did what they normally do well.

However it was Joanne Crawford who shone brightest as Helen McNally, who seemed to wear the weight of the world on her shoulders.

Leem Lubany proved a strong addition to the show as Amira, while the return of Abigail McGibbon as the dissident Tina McIntyre, Michael Shea as her son Mo and Cathy Tyson as the shadowy gentleman’s club owner Dana Morgan provided some reassurance that Lawn and Patterson will continue to weave in the threads of previously unresolved storylines.

We have, of course, been here before with ‘Blue Lights’ getting off to a strong start in previous series.

Maintaining that strong start isn’t easy.

Nevertheless the ingredients are there.

Hopefully the final concoction will be as satisfying as Stevie Neil’s favourite new pastry.

(Series Four, Episode One of ‘Blue Lights’ was broadcast on BBC1 on September 29, 2026 with all episodes available on the BBC iPlayer)