On 14 February 2022, the BBC announced that filming for an upcoming police procedural called Blue Lights had begun in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and its surrounding areas.

[1] The series was created and written by Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson, and produced by Two Cities Television and Northern Ireland Screen.

[1] The proposed series was described as "an authentic, gripping and darkly funny drama about ordinary people doing an extraordinary job in a society that could spiral out of control at any moment".

[1] Director Gilles Brannier called the procedural context "quite challenging" to her own vision for this show, as she intended it to be mainly character driven.

[4] Lawn and Patterson suggested the appeal of the series was the "great universality" of its themes, coupled with its "slice of life" view of Belfast.

[3][6] Lawn and Patterson aimed to represent Belfast with the series, as they both grew up there, explaining: "Every writer wants to explore their own place, and their own society as authentically and as honestly as they can.

[5][7] Lawn described his own experiences growing up in the city, where he would feel at "constant risk" and never knew if his parents would return home from work at the end of a weekday.

[5][7] According to Patterson, when writing Blue Lights, he and Lawn aimed to challenge people's mindsets, saying: "I think if you think about the world like that, then you can actually move forward as a society.

[6] He continued: "We can't just ignore the fact that there is still a lingering threat for these people that literally lay themselves on the line to uphold our civic duty.

[11][13] It said that Grace, Annie, and Tommy would no longer be "fresh out of training" and would be dealing mainly with rival loyalist gangs who try to fill the vacuum left by the MacIntyres after they were taken down in series 1.

[1] Siân Brooke plays Grace Ellis, a mother of a teenager who made the decision in her 40s to leave her job as a social worker to join the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

[18] Richard Dormer was cast as veteran police officer Gerry Cliff, described by Lawn and Patterson as "always there with the one liner" and "a natural born rebel", adding that the character was essential for the show's "mixture of darkness and humour".

[18] Joanne Crawford joined as Helen McNally, a sergeant who is "tough" on the probationers because she "knows what the job entails and the type of person who suits it".

The website's critical consensus reads, "Intelligently plotted and well-acted, this gruff low-budget procedural gets the green light for an addictive binge watch".

[24] Hugo Rifkind of The Times wrote of series one that although "the overall arc is subtle, with none of your Line of Duty or Happy Valley-style cliffhangers, [...] In place and tone, it’s excellent".

[27] Dan Einav of Financial Times wrote: "The series revolves around three new recruits who offer a fresh perspective on a profession that we’ve grown accustomed to seeing through the jaundiced filter of a cynical old-timer.

"[28] Eilis O'Hanlon of Irish Independent wrote "[Series one of] Blue Lights is an unexpectedly tense and engaging addition to the increasingly long list of police dramas on TV".

[29] Sean O'Grady of The Independent gave the series three out of five, writing: "There are flashes of gallows humour, almost literally, but the gloom is otherwise unrelieved, and frankly is a bit tiresome to watch".

[36] Ángel S. Harguindey of El Pais wrote that "The premise is nothing new, but it has one virtue: its narrative style is uncomplicated and has no need to resort to heroic gestures".

The website's critical consensus reads, "A procedural done precisely by the book, Blue Lights' sophomore season adheres to formula but does so with the utmost efficiency and panache".

[38] Jack Seale of The Guardian gave the series four out of five, writing: "Its gift for plain speaking is one thing that makes Blue Lights such rewarding drama, but the difficult political truths are softened by a weakness for that staple of escapist emergency-services soaps, the workplace romance".

[45] Camilla Long of The Times criticised the second series, writing: "The writers saw this, caught our sense of paranoia, creating a horribly plausible show.