BBC police drama Blue Lights is back, with another season of six episodes of the show following a group of officers in Belfast's PSNI about to arrive.
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The new season will pick up a year on from the end of season 1, which saw the team lose one of their own, veteran cop Gerry Cliff, played by Richard Dormer.
At a recent Q&A for the series, creators Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson addressed the time jump, and revealed their motivation behind its inclusion.
Lawn explained: "There's a few reasons for that. One, we try to write characters very honest, so obviously, spoiler alert for those who haven't watched season 1, Jerry's death really would have consumed - in an immediate continuance - consumed the characters, and that would have just been a different way of telling it.
"We kind of wanted to recognise the distillation, and the impact of his death is still there, but not have it be such an overbearing narrative on the season.
"So that was one of the driving factors, and there were others of course, but that was one of the primary ones."
Gerry Cliff (Richard Dormer) in Blue Lights. BBC/Gallagher Films/Two Cities Television
Meanwhile, Patterson added: "Another creative thought we had about that was, we wanted to look at… I suppose season 1 is what it takes to do the job, and season 2 is about what the job takes from you.
"We became very interested in our research, and when we were talking to police officers who were a year or two or three in about how it had changed them, I think all of the characters have changed a little bit.
"I met a police officer on a ride-along who... I had actually met her exactly a year previously, when she was two years into the job, and I met her a year later, and she had fundamentally changed. And so that was something that we really were interested in reflecting."
Other than Dormer, the new season will see most of the show's main cast returning, while actors joining the team for season 2 include Frank Blake and Derek Thompson.
The series has already been renewed for a third and fourth season beyond this second outing.
Blue Lights season 2 will arrive on in full BBC iPlayer at 6am on Monday 15th April, while the first episode will air at 9pm on BBC One. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight.
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James Hibbs is a Drama Writer for Radio Times, covering programmes across both streaming platforms and linear channels. He previously worked in PR, first for a B2B agency and subsequently for international TV production company Fremantle. He possesses a BA in English and Theatre Studies and an NCTJ Level 5 Diploma in Journalism.
