They Don’t Do Chitchat

Before we find out, here’s another public service announcement for Slugger readers.

This review will inevitably contain spoilers for this episode and others, so if you haven’t watched Series 1, 2 or 3 or even Series 3 Episode 5, then maybe hold off reading this.

(SPOILERS ALERT!!!)

Episode Five began with Katherine Devlin’s Annie Conlon heading back to her local community in the Glens after being forced to stay away from her mum’s funeral due to security concerns.

Calling into the parochial house, she arrived to get Mass cards from Nigel O’Neill’s down to earth parish priest, Father Joe.

Asked if she had travelled alone, Annie assured Father Joe she wasn’t and that his new chum, Neil Keery’s Sergeant McCloskey was outside.

As she gathered the Mass cards, Father Joe told her her mum was very proud of her.

He also revealed she wasn’t the only police officer from the area to receive a death threat in the form of black wreath and a bullet.

Struggling to understand how someone could go to those lengths to intimidate Annie and other police officers, Father Joe urged her to return to her townland one day.

“The way I see it, this world is faith versus shite,” he added in a pretty cogent summary of what life is all about.

As she stepped into the kitchen, there was an air of tension – although it was clear pretty quickly that even Stevie knew in his heart of hearts he would have to get over himself.

In Blackthorn Police Station, Nathan Braniff’s Tommy was pining for Dearbhaile McKinney’s Aisling but luckily he had the shoulder of everyone’s favourite agony uncle, Sergeant McCloskey to cry on.

Taking pity on the kid, McCloskey told him all about the residential place she had been sent to in Berkshire to help her cope with her PTSD.

There was no contact with the outside world – no phones, no TV, just a lot of talking, walking in the hills, reading books and thinking about things.

“It’s just a place to start from. It takes time.”

Asked by Tommy how he knew all this, McCloskey reverted to being typically blunt: “How do you think?”

As Tommy confronted the terrifying realisation that he could soon be dating the female version of McCloskey, Frank Blake’s Shane arrived and announced that he had got an email from the Ombudsman requesting he and Tommy meet them after their shift.

McCloskey flashed a cheeky grin as they mulled over the news, wishing them good luck.

“You need me. I think you know that,” she confidently told Dana who fired back that what she was involved in was way above Tina’s pay grade.

“You deal in kilos. I deal in tonnes. I represent very serious people,” Dana boasted.

This was a big revelation for Tina who realised that the Englishwoman wasn’t working for the Dublin-based Ginley gang.

They were working for her.

Noting Dana needed her activities to be kept out of the police’s line of vision, Tina warned her the Ginley gang and Charlie Maher’s Fogerty were doing the exact opposite.

As if to prove her point, squad cars gathered outside the leafy south Belfast home of Conor Mullen’s dodgy accountant George McClelland following Grace’s success in persuading Lindsay to make a statement about his even dodgier sex life.

Soon Grace, Brendan Quinn’s Sean Mulholland and uniformed officers raided the accountant’s house, much to the surprise of George and his family.

Insisting his wife hear the grounds for the police raid, George was left red faced after he was informed he was being taken into custody on suspicion of rape and the making and distribution of indecent images of children.

Visiting the headquarters of police intelligence, Joanne Crawford’s Helen McNally joined Michael Smiley’s C3 officer Colly and Diona Doherty’s C4 officer Louise Carrigan to run through the names of the dissidents that Aisling had obtained last week.

Surmising the gang could launch a gun attack on a police vehicle at any moment, Carrigan said two mobile support units would be based at Blackthorn to accompany any officers on patrol and take out the dissident gang.

“Make sure your people stay well away. They don’t do chitchat,” Carrigan advised Helen.

While they talked tactics, Fogerty was given a dressing down by Dana for McClelland being arrested on his watch.

Fogerty insisted he would fix it but she wasn’t convinced.

It didn’t take long to figure out how Fogerty intended to fix it.

Matthew Forsythe’s solicitor Aodhan McAllister turned up at Tina’s house, not looking his normal, cocky self.

Looking like he was about to have a cardiac arrest, McAllister revealed the Ginleys’ representative wanted to take out the accountant and anyone who was with him.

They specifically wanted him to tip them off when his client was on the move from Blackthorn Police Station.

But would the solicitor go along with their command?

After the dual disappointment of Episodes Three and Four, ‘Blue Lights’ came roaring back with the kind of edge of your seat episode that the show’s devoted fans love.

One involved Shane and Annie dealing with a woman who was off her face on drugs in a city centre restaurant in a sequence that took an unexpected twist.

Both of these sequences were heartening reminders of what screenwriters Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson could do at their very best.

With the screenwriters and director on top form, the cast thrived.

Brooke had a stellar episode, while Blake, Devlin, Crawford, Braniff, McGibbon and Andi Osho also shone.

Osho’s Sandra Cliff had to deal with some particularly disappointing news that would have hit the show’s most ardent fans hard.

Meanwhile Smiley once again proved in this episode how he has quickly become a real asset to the show.

Unfortunately, though, McCann still seemed wasted in his guise as the station’s acting Skipper.

It didn’t help that the venue for Dana’s big meeting with Tina was an abandoned warehouse beside Musgrave Police Station.

The failure of Tina to grasp this or the police to know what was going on on their doorstep no doubt unintentionally amused Belfast audiences.

Keery’s Sergeant McCloskey has emerged during Series Three an unlikely fan favourite and it was good to see him again bucking expectation.

It was also good to see Forsythe getting a chance to stretch himself a bit more as his solicitor wilted under the pressure of having to get his hands dirty.

Like Episode Five in Series One and Two, Patterson and Lawn served their audience up a cliffhanger at the end of the episode.

(Episode Five of Series Three of ‘Blue Lights’ was broadcast on BBC1 on October 27, 2025 with all episodes available on the BBC iPlayer)