When season three of Blue Lights starts, response officers Grace (Sian Brooke), Annie (Katherine Devlin), and Tommy (Nathan Braniff) are now two years into their jobs when they are pulled into a major drugs and trafficking case across Belfast. It becomes personal for Grace when she realizes that vulnerable teenager and drug runner Lindsay Singleton (Aoife Hughes) is the same girl she once tried to save in her social worker days. Meanwhile, Stevie (Martin McCann)’s promotion to sergeant changes the dynamic between them, leaving him torn between backing her instincts and enforcing the rules from his new position.

Brooke recently spoke with SciFi Vision about season three, including the impact of Stevie’s promotion on his relationship with Grace, how her character feels about Lindsay and if she regrets changing professions, and more. She also spoke briefly about her time on the successful British series Sherlock.

New episodes drop every Thursday on Britbox, and the season three finale will premiere on on December 18th.

Watch the interview and read the transcript below.



SCIFI VISION:   To start out, talk about kind of how her relationship with Stevie is going to evolve over the season and how also his new promotion will affect it as well.

SIAN BROOKE:   Yeah, they have a bit of a rough time this season. It starts off really positively in them trying to sort of cement their relationship and buy somewhere together. And then things take a turn for the worse when, you know, things that happen at work very much impact upon them personally.

And yeah, it's quite unique in that because they both do the same job, it follows them home. And then Grace finds herself in quite extreme situations in season [three], which means they have to confront quite a lot in their relationship. His promotion is a difficult one, I think, because it means they're no longer, you know, equal in their pursuit of this job. He's her boss, and she doesn't really like being bossed about, I think, because she's got her own ideals about how she wants to approach this job, which isn't always procedurally correct. You know, she's sort of a very direct person and just wants to do things immediately. Whereas [in] the institution of policing, you can't always do that. There are routes that you have to go down in order to make things different. So, yeah, it puts a bit of tension between them, I think.

SCIFI VISION:   Obviously, she came from being a social worker and that really comes into play this season. Talk about sort of her - I guess, it seems like at times, maybe she's not sure if she should have left, because she can't interact in the way that she wants. I'll put it that way. So, what has she thought and has she thought about maybe changing back?

SIAN BROOKE:   I think, yeah, that's a really interesting question, because I think, in this series, she probably does feel that maybe she should have stayed where she was, especially because she comes sort of face to face with an old client of hers, this young girl who she was very close to and had quite a big influence on in a positive way when she was a social worker, and she thought that she'd set her on the right path. But then when she encounters her again, this young woman is in a very vulnerable state, you know, in the sort of company of some nasty people, and I think she feels quite guilty that she wasn't there, and she sort of let her down. So, I think a lot of the things that she does in this season are trying to rectify that, trying to make amends and trying to rescue this young person. I think she feels quite frustrated, because she doesn't have the agency that she thought she would have as a police officer, and she's trying to marry those two worlds.

SCIFI VISION:   Talk a bit about kind of what else, other than what we've talked about, the fans can expect. I know there's the whole thing with the threat to the police going on. There's quite a lot. So, yeah, just tease a bit what people can expect.

SIAN BROOKE:   In terms of the whole season?

SCIFI VISION:   Yeah, just without, without big spoilers. That’s always fun. [laughs]

SIAN BROOKE:   It's like playing that game where you have to describe something, but you're not allowed to say the actual word. [laughs]

SCIFI VISION:   Yeah, [laughs] pretty much.

SIAN BROOKE:   This time round, I think you see for all of these characters, how this job impacts upon them in a very, very personal way. And they are all tested to breaking point, I think.

I think in terms of the criminal story, it goes into sort of the leafy suburbs of Belfast, the lawyers and the solicitors and actually the nub of the crimes in terms of the sort of where the real criminals live. And also, I think you see this, it peels back the layers in terms of who is really in charge of this city, and the sort of power play that's happening between these criminal gangs. So, there's lots in there to unpack. There are action sequences, there're high stakes, [and] they’re very traumatic and, you know, dramatic stuff.

I have to say, I think this is one of my favorite [seasons]. This is my favorite season. Yeah.

SCIFI VISION:   All right, fair enough. We have probably about a minute left. Really quickly, I do want to ask you something just about Sherlock, because I know I mentioned it last time, but I still think about it now. What's a memory that still sticks out for you from that? If you think back?

SIAN BROOKE:   So, I know it's been quite a while, but I think I just feel really gifted, like really blessed that I was able to take part in something that was such, a big part of British TV. Yeah, like Sherlock was, you know, before streaming, before all of that, and it was just sort of big.

I remember it was like Sherlock fever, you know, and I look back, [and] I think I'm so proud to have been part of that. One of my favorite things probably is when at the very, very end of the season, they had a family photo taken, and I just remember thinking, God, that's amazing. I'm now part of that family.

SCIFI VISION:   Very, very true.