The BBC’s Blue Lights is a near-perfect cop drama

‘Remember your training Grace, get the rifle.’ We’re only moments into the opening episode of the superb new police procedural Blue Lights when we are reminded this is a very different cop show. In Northern Ireland, where it is set, policing the semi-skimmed peace still carries the additional risk of being ambushed by terrorists. Being tooled up, even for a traffic stop, can be a matter of life and death.

Any of us who have worn a uniform while wet behind the ears can empathise with the struggle of these three new officers

Grace and Stevie, her mentor – and possibly more as the series develops – are two central characters in a six-part BBC drama that manages to humanise the lives of the men and women in the Police Service of Northern Ireland without mawkishness. It follows three rookie cops working in a threadbare and often overwhelmed Belfast response team. Readers old enough to remember Hill Street Blues, the groundbreaking US cop show that introduced us to the idea that police officers were three-dimensional characters with flaws as big as their strengths, will not be disappointed.