Play The Game, Son

Well, the evil day finally arrived in the latest episode of ‘Blue Lights’.

Episode Three of Series Four centred around the trial of dissident republicans Mo McIntyre and Anto Donovan for common enterprise in the murder of Constable Gerry Cliff.

But before we focus on all that, I’ll still have to sound the usual warning about these reviews of individual episodes.

So if you’ve watched the entire fourth series on the iPlayer, please refrain from giving away any spoilers about the remaining episodes if you are commenting below.

Be aware the review also contains spoilers from previous series and recent episodes, so it’s probably best not to read this until you’ve watched them.

This week’s episode began with director Sam O’Mahony giving us a long shot of Stormont’s Parliament Buildings nestled at the top of its hill, followed by a drone shot of Belfast city centre that glided past the Albert Clock.

As cars picked their way through the morning rush hour, a radio news bulletin announced the trial was beginning of two men accused of the murder of a police officer.

As commuters listened to the bulletin, the police officer’s widow, Sergeant Sandra Cliff arrived at court and peered at the hearings list.

Her husband’s childhood friend Happy Kelly was also there and they embraced.

“Are you ok?” she asked.

Happy, who was giving evidence, looked nervous.

“It’s just.. I don’t want to let him down, you know?” he replied.

Sandra assured Happy he’d be fine.

As the defendants, their counsel and family arrived, Tina McIntyre strolled confidently towards a consultation room until she caught Sandra’s glaze and bowed her head.

Meanwhile in CS Lewis Square, Lee Thompson was ferrying a group of American tourists around east Belfast on his tour bus and addressed them as if he was a Sergeant at a passing out parade.

Asked by one tourist if it was safe to wander the streets following the recent riots, Lee barked at them they had nothing to fear because the locals were decent, hard working people.

Standing among them was executive club owner and Ginley Gang associate Dana Morgan who introduced herself to Lee as his real boss.

As usual with Dana, there were no niceties.

She simply ordered him to shift a drug consignment from Dublin that day to England despite his deep reservations about potential police surveillance.

(SPOILERS ALERT!!)

As Constable Grace Ellis licked her wounds in the locker room of Blackthorn Police Station after a heavily edited, secretly filmed clip of her talking to Katie Close in hospital was uploaded in last week’s episode on social media by the vlogger who also identified her, her boyfriend Acting Sergeant Stevie Neil tried to cheer her up by showing her how well she performed in her detective’s exam.

Noting her disappointment at not being allowed to transfer to the child protection team, Stevie told Grace she still had a stellar career ahead of her.

She just had to get off the ropes and come out fighting.

As the team in Blackthorn gathered in the briefing room, Constable Tommy Foster continued to grumble about how being in the PSNI was “pointless” after Constable Shane Bradley told him C3 had dismissed his information about spotting Lee Thompson in Belfast, labelling the former soldier a “has been”.

At the briefing, Chief Inspector Helen McNally acknowledged the Gerry Cliff murder trial was taking place that day but she urged her officers to keep their minds on the job.

With his arms folded, Tommy robustly challenged Helen’s claim that by concentrating on the small things and pushing up the crime stats, Blackthorn would eventually be able to make a difference to the big policing challenges.

After being told by Stevie he should address the Chief Inspector as ma’am, Tommy continued to rant: “it just seems like no matter what we do, no matter how hard we try, the bad guys always f**king win.”

After his strop, Tommy was ordered to remain at base for a file day – the Blackthorn equivalent of a child being sent to his room.

Tommy’s ex-girlfriend Constable Aisling Byrne was paired with Shane and after making a point of agreeing with Tommy how weird it was to see Lee Thompson back in Belfast after two years driving a tour bus, they decided to pay the former soldier a visit at his workplace.

Meanwhile at the courts, solicitor Aodhan McAllister made a return to the show and was trying to ensure that a rather jittery Mo McIntyre would keep his nerve during the trial.

Mo’s mum Tina was also on hand to impart advice: “You just play the game, son. Play the game.”

Mo, though, struggled to keep it together as former Constable Jen Robinson and Happy Kelly gave evidence and footage of Gerry’s murder was played to the jury.

But with other interested parties in court including MI5, would Sandra get the justice she deserved?

Episode Three kept up the solid work of the previous two, with screenwriter Morna Regan and director Sam O’Mahony taking up the baton.

The best scenes were undoubtedly in the court with Andi Osho’s Sandra Cliff, Abigail McGibbon’s Tina McIntyre, Michael Shea’s Mo McIntyre and Gerard Jordan’s tough nut Anto Donovan all impressing.

It was good to see Hannah McClean return as Jen Robinson, Paddy Jenkins as Happy Kelly and Matthew Forsythe as Aodhan McAllister.

If there were wobbles, though, they were away from the trial.

A decision by Grace to put aside her anger towards Katie Close and pay her a welfare visit alongside Constable Annie Conlon after the vlogger claimed she had received a death threat online felt a bit of a stretch.

A subsequent revelation about Amira Saeed also didn’t convince.

A tense stand-off at Lee Thompson’s garage involving Aisling and Shane promised much but fizzled out like an indoor firework.

Despite this, Dearbhaile McKinney, Katherine Devlin, Nathan Braniff, Joanne Crawford, Martin McCann,  Sian Brooke, Seamus O’Hara, Leem Lubany and Andrea Irvine as Chief Superintendent Nicola Robinson all managed to put in decent shifts.

However we’re still waiting for Cathy Tyson to give Dana Morgan a bit more heft and for Tabitha Smyth’s Katie Close to show more depth.

Frank Blake’s Shane Bradley, though, is fast cementing himself as the most entertaining figure in the Blackthorn team.

Shane’s not quite reached Richard Dormer/Gerry Cliff levels but he’s amusing nevertheless.

Halfway through Series Four and with a Gerry Cliff flashback episode coming up, ‘Blue Lights’ certainly has a lot of narrative plates spinning.

The question is: can Declan Lawn, Adam Patterson and their writers keep them all intact and prevent them from smashing?

(Series Four, Episode Three of ‘Blue Lights’ was broadcast on BBC1 on October 13th, 2026 with all episodes available on the BBC iPlayer)