Blue Lights season 3: plot, cast and everything we know

The rookie cast of Blue Lights season 3 gathered in an office in full tactical gear

The team will return for a third season of Blue Lights (Image credit: BBC)

The BBC has confirmed Blue Lights season 3 is officially in the works (hurrah!) and two new faces will be joining the hit Belfast-based cop show.

Cathy Tyson (Boiling Point) and Michael Smiley (Bad Sisters) will both play new characters in the highly-anticipated third series and producers have also shared some tantalising plot details.

According to a BBC press release, the PSNI rookie cops will be investigating "the world of the accountants and lawyers who facilitate organised crime".

The first series of Blue Lights proved a hit when it launched in 2023 and the second received more critical acclaim when it aired the following Spring.

Indeed the Beeb had so much faith in writers Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson, they renewed the show for a third and fourth season — before the second had even aired!

"We're thrilled that the BBC is committing to Blue Lights in this way," said Blue Lights' creators Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson. "From the beginning, we wanted to write a show that had scale and ambition in its storytelling, and this decision gives us everything we need to do that.

"For us, the joy of making Blue Lights is spending time with the characters and watching them grow, learn, and deal with the daily adversity of response policing in Belfast. At its heart, this is a show about personal, institutional and social change, and we want each series to reflect that in its own way."

Here's everything we know about Blue Lights season 3

(THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR BLUE LIGHTS SEASON 1 & 2)

Blue Lights season 3 release date

The BBC have confirmed that Blue Lights season 3 began filming in Belfast in January 2025, which means it could be hitting our screens in late 2025 or early 2026.

The first two seasons of the drama came in consecutive years, however creators Adam Paterson and Declan Lawn said that with the show returning for two more series in the coming years, a bigger gap between them could be expected as they consider longer-running plot arcs.

"It’s a great vote of confidence in the whole team and everyone involved," said Lawn. "Creatively though, for us as writers, it gives us a great deal of certainty, and it means we can plan the story arcs now over 12 episodes instead of six, which we're really excited about.

"It's kind of like you're doing a painting on a small page and then someone says, ‘Here's a big canvas’. So it feels creatively very, very exciting."

Blue Lights plot

The BBC released a short synopsis of Blue Lights season 3 in early 2025, which reads as follows...

"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 organised 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."

After concentrating on a Republican crime family in the first series and the Loyalist side of the community in the second, so a more complex tale that weaves together stories from both sides of Belfast's historical divide could now be on the cards.

We were all delighted to see Stevie (Martin McCann) and Grace (Sian Brooke) finally getting together in the final episode of season 2 and they may well have moved in together by the time we return to Belfast. However dating a fellow member of the team comes with terrible risks, as Sandra Cliff (Andi Osho) found out in heartbreaking fashion at the end of the first season... Let's hope neither Stevie nor Grace meet the same fate as poor Gerry.

If Stevie does move in with Grace then Annie (Katherine Devlin) would probably have to move out. But will we be seeing anymore of Shane Bradley (Frank Blake), who caused a stir when he arrived at Blackthorn as a new recruit last time out.

Moreover, will DS Murray Canning (Desmond Eastwood) still be a part of the picture after his shady deal with drug boss Lee Thompson was uncovered at the end of the last series? Will former PSNI constable and practicing solicitor Jen Robinson (Hannah McClean) be back for more or has her story been told?

Fortunately it looks like Sandra is here to stay, after telling her colleagues she's decided against returning to London - hurrah - and Constable Tommy seems happy enough after finding romance with new recruit from Derry, Aisling (Dearbháile McKinney).

Headshots of Cathy Tyson and Michael Smiley — Cathy Tyson and Michael Smiley will be joining the cast (Image credit: Jennie Scott / Harmit Kambo)

Blue Lights season 3 cast

Cathy Tyson (Boiling Point) and Michael Smiley (Bad Sisters) have joined the cast, although we're not sure who they'll be playing at this stage.

We're confident all of the main cast will return for Blue Lights season 3, with Sian Brooke telling Radiotimes.com the third season would be a 'corker' earlier this year.

"I know it's going to be very exciting," she said. "I do know that — and it's going to be a corker!"

However, whether supporting characters such as Grace's son Cal — who was at University in England during the second season — or former PSNI Constable Jen Robinson will return isn't confirmed. We hope they do though!

Here's a list of all the cast who could appear...