The Independent's Jacob Stolworthy takes you through his 12 picks of 2024 in film and television.In the first, Jacob picks gritty Northern Irish drama Blue Lights. The two seasons follow the lives of police juniors and their mentors and life on the streets of Northern Ireland. Right now on BBC iPlayer you can watch the first two seasons, with a third due to follow in 2025.
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00:00Christmas is nearly here and at Christmas time you want to sit around doing nothing but watching
00:04films and TV shows but sometimes you just don't know what to watch and the good news is I have
00:10you covered because over the next 12 days I'm going to be recommending you 12 things from the
00:14past year that you really need to watch. So stay tuned as in the lead up to Christmas we reel off
00:20the 12 film and TV highlights of 2024. On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me
00:26a Northern Irish drama from the BBC. That's right my first pick is Blue Lights which aired
00:32its second series this year. Those things in Belfast, a bit mad?
00:39Yeah a bit mad. It's like Line of Duty got all the love when that was on TV everyone was speaking
00:45about it you couldn't really go anywhere without anyone asking you who they thought H was and all
00:49of that. I think Blue Lights deserves similar love and I think it will get it because it became more
00:54of a hit this year than it did last year of its first series and because of that it's now had a
00:58third and fourth series commissioned. If we do this there's no going back. It can't go on like this.
01:05This too shall pass. It's a show about a group of probationary officers and the police mentors as
01:12they roam the streets of Belfast and it's got really it's got grit to it it's got comedy to it
01:18it's got each character has their own charisma. Sian Brooke and Catherine Devlin who play two of
01:25the cops on different side of things are standouts in this show. Richard Dormer who you will know
01:30from Game of Thrones is also in the show and he's really great. You've got two series to work through
01:34over Christmas. It's not the coziest of watches but it's definitely one that you might not have
01:38seen yet that you're gonna go into the new year armed having seen so that when series three starts
01:43you can be part of the conversation.