'Blue Lights' Season 3 Will Begin Ride Alongs in November

The 2020s began with a reckoning over shows that glorify law enforcement, but instead of changing the landscape, the five years that followed seem to have only doubled down on such things. There are more Law & Order shows than ever, and dozens of shows with alphabet soup levels of initials; CSI, FBI, and NCIS are three of the most popular franchises on American TV currently. No one is immune to it either; even PBS airs and streams British and European versions like Unforgotten and SOKO Potsdam, the latter of which can be found under the titles Luna + Sophie and Partners In Crime. But there's nothing quite like the BBC series Blue Lights, which is perhaps the most intelligent piece of copaganda on TV today.

The series debuted in 2023, starting with an oddly comedic premise: a 40-year-old Belfast mother of three, in the midst of a midlife crisis, decides to join the local force and quickly becomes fast friends with two other rookies who are barely older than the kids she left at home. However, wrapped inside this semi-dramedy was an honest look at the state of policing in Northern Ireland 25 years after the Good Friday Accords, and how the legacy of the Troubles still is something every person who dons a uniform of any kind has to contend with.

The series was an instant hit in the U.K., and one of the last major acquisitions BritBox made in 2023 before the BBC took sole ownership. Season 1's debut on BritBox in the spring of 2024 was the second-largest viewing audience ever, and the show has already been greenlit through Season 4. Unsurprisingly, Season 3's debut is a big deal for the streaming service, and will arrive all of ten days after the finale airs across the pond.

Along with the release date announcement, BritBox has also released a raft of first images, confirming the return of the show's central quintet of characters.

Here's the Season 3 synopsis:

Two years into their jobs as response officers, Grace, Annie, and Tommy are accustomed to life under the blue lights. But their work will take them into a sinister world hidden behind the veneer of middle-class life, the world of the accountants and lawyers who facilitate organized crime. The old political and criminal order has gone, and a new global gang rule Belfast, bringing danger closer to home for our officers than ever before.

Blue Lights returning cast for Season 3 includes Siân Brooke (Trying) as Grace, Martin McCann (Wolf) as Stevie, Katherine Devlin (The Day of the Jackal) as Annie, and no-longer-quite-a-newcomer Nathan Braniff as Tommy. The series ensemble also includes Joanne Crawford (Small Things Like These) as Helen, Andi Osho (The Sandman) as Sandra, Frank Blake (Normal People) as Shane, Abigail McGibbon (The Lovers) as Tina, Dearbháile McKinney (Kneecap) as Aisling, and Andrea Irvine (Dead Shot) as Nicola.

Season 3 also adds two longtime BBC stars to the series as regulars, Michael Smiley (Bad Sisters) as intelligence officer Paul ‘Colly’ Collins, and Cathy Tyson (Criminal Record) as private members club owner, Dana Morgan.

Series creators Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson once again penned all six episodes for the show's third season, with Season 1 director Jack Casey splitting helming duties with Angela Griffin (Waterloo Road). Lawn and Patterson also executive produce with Stephen Wright for Two Cities Television, Louise Gallagher for Gallagher Films, and Nick Lambon for the BBC.

Blue Lights Season 3 will premiere in the U.K. on the BBC and iPlayer beginning Monday, September 29, 2025. The series will follow on BritBox a week after the U.K. finale, starting Thursday, November 13, 2025, and will follow a weekly release schedule through mid-December. 

Seasons 1 and 2 are available to stream on BritBox in the States. Season 4 is already greenlit.