Try Not To Get Involved With Any Spooks

It was ‘Blue Lights,’ folks but not as we know it.

But before we dissect Episode Four of the fourth series, let’s make our customary appeal.

If you’ve watched the entire fourth series on the BBC iPlayer, please don’t give away any spoilers about the remaining episodes in the comments below.

Please be aware this review also inevitably contains spoilers from previous series and recent episodes, so maybe you should pause reading this if you haven’t watched them.

(SPOILERS ALERT)

As BBC NI’s Economic and Business Editor John Campbell pointed out last week on Radio Ulster’s The Connor Phillips Show, tonighr’s episode began with a cheeky ‘Dallas’ gag.

Just like Bobby Ewing appearing in the shower after being killed off in the US soap opera, a roving camera captured Gerry Cliff emerging from his as he listened to country music.

This didn’t mean, though, that Series Two or Three of ‘Blue Lights’ were some kind of terrible Pam Ewing style dream.

No. This was a flashback episode – filling in the blanks about Gerry and the events that shaped him.

Arguably the show’s most beloved character, Gerry was shockingly killed off in the penultimate episode of Series One.

But his ghost has very much hovered over the three series that have followed.

Ever since news about his return for just one more episode broke earlier this year, there’s been quite a bit of buzz among the show’s most ardent fans.

So did it live up to expectations?

After the opening shower scene, we watched Gerry race out of his house to catch a flight to England, deciding at the last minute to take his acoustic guitar with him.

His destination was the Kent Marsh Training Camp where he had been tasked with teaching a troop of English police officers the art of “crowd control and policing a hostile environment”.

Among those awaiting instruction was Gerry’s future wife, Sandra and her mate Dee whose reaction to seeing her PSNI tutor was: “Well, hello Constable!”

Introduced by Inspector Tennant as an officer operating in the UK’s most difficult policing environment, Gerry began his first lesson by producing a petrol bomb and asking his students if they knew what it contained.

Sandra scored points for guessing correctly it was petrol, with Gerry explaining that this particular concoction was called “builder’s tea” because it contained sugar designed to keep the flammable material stuck to its target.

Inviting Sandra to throw the device, when she hit her target – a burnt out car – Gerry asked her if she was sure she wasn’t from Belfast.

“Dagenham till I die!” she retorted.

After the first day’s training there was time for a pint with Dee and Sandra, with the former noting some chemistry between Gerry and her friend.

With both of them calling an early night and going to their separate rooms, Dee was left with a bucket load of booze and felt the worse for wear the following morning during a riot simulation.

In between lessons, Sandra and Gerry nipped off for a sneaky afternoon pint.

This enabled her to quiz him on why he was still a Constable.

Gerry deflected this with a story about his Inspector insisting he was needed in Response because he was too handsome to remain behind a desk.

Later during training, Sandra panicked about walking through petrol bomb flames but Gerry gave her a useful tip about humming her favourite tune to get through it.

Then as the trainees later celebrated passing the course, Gerry rather flirtatiously sang her choice of song, Rufus and Chaka Kahn’s ‘Ain’t Nobody,’ when he was invited to play his guitar.

The following morning, with Dee rabbiting on about Sandra giving Gerry her number, she took a chance.

And so a courtship began with Sandra heading over to Belfast to see him instead of Gerry heading the other way.

Returning to the streets of Belfast, Gerry was faced with the reality of pregabalin overdoses and kneecappings on the nationalist Carrick View estate as the McIntyre gang joined forces with the Dublin-based drug dealing Ginley gang.

Spotting a Dublin reg car on the estate on Halloween night, Gerry ignored Inspector Jonty Johnson’s orders for him to abandon his pursuit of the criminals.

‘Blue Lights’ fans know why Jonty was so reluctant to have his officer intervene and this made Gerry’s Halloween joke at the end of a briefing by Sergeant Helen McNally particularly prescient: “Try Not To Get Involved With Any Spooks.”

With Gerry growing closer to Sandra, he revealed to her the real reason why he had remained a Police Constable for many years.

That story would have implications for his murder in Series One and the dropping of the subsequent court case against Mo McIntyre and Anto Donovan in last week’s episode.

With Gerry front and centre, this week’s instalment of ‘Blue Lights’ was always going to be different from the usual fare and so it proved, with no Grace, Tommy, Annie, Shane or Aisling featuring.

We did get to see, though, a clean shaven Stevie Neil, Helen McNally with a different hairstyle, Jen Robinson, Colly looking exactly the same as he always does, Barney playing folk music and a very wiggy looking Jonty Johnson.

Gerry had a prototype Tommy Foster called Constable Colin Nugent riding alongside him on patrol in the Carrick View estate.

And while there was a certain nostalgia about seeing Sandra and Gerry together, there was also a sense of another agenda at play – a sense that the show’s creators and writers of this episode, Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson were starting to move towards a definitive conclusion of the McIntyre crime gang story that has dominated the show.

With former ‘Coronation Street’ and ‘Waterloo Road’ actress Angela Griffin back in the director’s chair, there was a gentler pacing and tone to much of this episode.

Although we did get to see Gerry taking part in a car chase.

This was an episode for the fans who were left reeling when Gerry was gunned down in Series One and who felt a bit robbed.

And from that perspective it was a joy to see Richard Dormer, one of Northern Ireland’s best actors of recent times, back as Gerry.

The cheeky sense of humour, the mischievous twinkle in his eye and the rebel spirit were still there.

As Dormer sparkled, Andi Osho held her own as Sandra and continued to demonstrate why this is her strongest season yet.

Suzanne Ahmet also amused as Sandra’s friend Dee, while Jake Douglas was well cast as the wet behind the ears PSNI Constable who Gerry shepherded on the beat.

Martin McCann, Joanne Crawford, Michael Smiley, Jonathan Harden, Frankie McCafferty and Hannah McClean did what was required of them as Stevie, Helen, Colly, Jonny, Barney and Jen.

The episode saw the return of Art Campion, AKA the hot priest Father Peter in ‘Derry Girls,’ who briefly reappeared as Sully, the Ginley gang member from Series One.

However this was very much Dormer and Osho’s show.

The episode enabled Patterson and Lawn to tee up how they hope to tie up various loose ends from previous series and recent episodes.

But in their eagerness to tie everything up, let’s hope their laces don’t snap.

(Series Four, Episode Four of ‘Blue Lights’ was broadcast on BBC1 on October 20th, 2026 with all episodes available on the BBC iPlayer)