Nathan Braniff on Blue Lights: “You’re dealing with such sensitive subjects, which have been a massive deal for forty or fifty years"

While Hot Press’ love affair with Jackson Lamb and his Slough House charges remains as passionate as ever, Slow Horses’ vice-like grip on TV Drama of the Year has been broken by a police procedural praised locally for its nuanced portrayal of modern Belfast.

Blue Lights follows the professional and private lives – both of which are equally hazardous – of young response officers operating out of the fictitious Blackthorn PSNI station.

Straddling both sides of the sectarian divide, the taut storylines and graphic violence are accompanied by some deliciously dark humour and a thumping soundtrack that ranges from Bap Kennedy, Johhny Cash and The Strypes to The Sultans Of Ping F.C., Dea Matrona and Muireann Bradley.

Completing its third run in September with the brilliant Cathy Tyson as the guest baddie, it’s made an instant star out of local actor Nathan Braniff who plays Tommy Foster, initially the naivest of the new recruits who gets a crash course in the harsh realities of police life.

“I was in London for seven years but this job brought me back home to Belfast, which is buzzing at the moment,” Nathan enthuses. “I always knew there was huge creative potential here, but growing up there was so much other stuff going on that got in the way.

“Now that we’re moving further and further away from The Troubles and their aftermath, there’s been a real blossoming of film and TV shows like Blue Lights which are written and created by people who’ve grown up here and, to a large extent, are telling their own stories.

“You’re dealing with such sensitive subjects, which have been a massive deal for forty or fifty years,” he adds. “That carries a great weight of responsibility. The way round it is to make sure that everything you’re doing is truthful. You’re not pulling stuff out of thin air for dramatic effect, it’s legit.”

Now 28, Braniff was bitten by the acting bug shortly before entering his teens.

“I did a wee primary school production of Oklahoma, which I loved,” he recalls. “Seeing this, my mum said, ‘Why don’t we try and get you auditions for other stuff outside of school?’ So I auditioned to play one of the seven dwarves in Snow White but got turned down – and this is the only time it’s happened to me – for being too tall!

“My next audition was for Bugsy Malone in the Grand Opera House. I went in thinking that maybe I’d get a part in the chorus, but they handed me the lead role and then it was pretty much one musical or play after another until I hit eighteen and went to drama school in London.”

That drama school being the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, which also includes Naiomi Campbell, Pixie Lott, Sadie Frost, Lesley Manville, Noel Coward, Patsy Kensit, Tracy Ullman and Erin Geraghty among its graduates.

Asked what his favourite films and TV series were as a nipper, Nathan shoots back, “I’ve always loved Game Of Thrones, which has obviously been a gamechanger in terms of major shows being made here. I’d be there waiting for 2am on a Monday morning when the next episode came out. I’ve always been into fantasy stuff like that and Lord Of The Rings. More recently, I’ve loved Stranger Things on Netflix. I’ve just re-watched the first few series ahead of the new one coming out, and it’s so beautifully written and acted.

“I also like the gritty stuff that Shane Meadows does. He’s worked a lot with Stephen Graham who deserves all the praise he gets.”

Following primary school, Nathan went to Campbell College which fellow alumni Gary Lightbody told Hot Press is attended by “the cream of Northern Irish youth. Rich and thick!”

“I had an English teacher called Mr. McKee who would never shut up about how he taught Gary Lightbody everything he knew,” Nathan laughs. “I was different to most of the boys who go there in that my family are from quite humble beginnings. But everybody was friendly and I had the time of my life at that school.”

Shortly after leaving the Italia Conti Academy, Covid struck which put the brakes on Nathan’s fledgling career.

“Blue Lights was the first in-the-room audition I’d had in two years,” he reveals. “I remember reading the email from my agent which said, ‘Young guy, around 25, from Belfast, quite naïve, green…’ and thinking, ‘If I can’t get this part, what on earth am I doing? How many actors are there in Northern Ireland who’d suit the role as well as I do?’ I practiced stupid stuff all the time during Covid to keep my actor’s brain ticking over, so I was able to do a good audition and got the part.”

Nathan Braniff in blue Lights.

Game Of Thrones nerd that he is, Braniff thought he’d died and gone to heaven when told that he’d be riding shotgun in Blue Lights with Richard Dormer, AKA Beric Dondarrion.

“Getting Richard Dormer as your main scene partner in your first professional TV gig is a complete dream come true,” Nathan says, still sounding awe-struck. “He was this seasoned vet who had so many credits to his name and I was a rookie, which completely mirrored our characters Gerry and Tommy in the show. We were able to channel that into our performances.

“Richard told me lots of stories about the time he spent with Hurricane Higgins, getting to know and understand him for the Hurricane play he was writing. What that man and him got up to you would not believe…”

Oh, we would!

“I’m sorry I never got to see Hurricane – everyone who did says it was incredible – but the Good Vibrations film, which Richard also starred in, was a stunning piece of work and digs really deep into the Belfast psyche. If I’m recommending films about here to people, I always include it and ’71.”

Which were both music supervised by Hot Press’ old mucker David Holmes.

“I’m familiar with David,” Nathan smiles. “I’ve frequented the raves he puts on here a couple of times. Michael Smiley, who plays Paul Collins the intelligence officer in the show, is another David Holmes fan and used to go partying back in the day. Michael’s a really funny guy and, like Cathy Tyson, somebody you can learn lots from.

“You’d be unlucky to go out in Belfast and not bump into somebody else who’s an actor or a musician.”

Let’s go back to Nathan’s first day on the Blue Lights set. He’s a self-confessed rookie working with all these familiar faces. How did he feel?

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous,” he admits. “There’s only so much experience drama school can give you. When you walk on to a professional set like that and there’s fifteen people in lighting and the same again in the hair, makeup, costume and camera departments, it’s different to anything you’ve done before. Luckily, on that first series I was under the direction of a really brilliant director, Gilles Bannier. From the first audition, we had such great chemistry. I knew what he wanted – and he knew how to get what he wanted out of me without explicitly telling me what to do.”

When did Nathan realise that they had an international hit on their hands?

“Reading the scripts for the first time, I thought, ‘These are quite colloquial and the humour in them niche to Belfast. A Northern Irish audience will enjoy it, but I’m not sure about elsewhere,’” he admits. “How wrong was I? When it came out, the rest of the UK took to it. And then with the second series, it started doing really well on Britbox in America. At that point I was like, ‘Okay, this is not a wee local show everybody loves because it’s about Belfast. We’re making some good drama that’s resonating with people across the world.’”

As we’ve said before in Hot Press, the likes of Blue Lights, Derry Girls, Say Nothing, Trespasses and the Kneecap movie have taught our near-neighbours far more about Northern Ireland than they ever learned in school.

“Without getting too political, it suited some people here that the rest of the world didn’t know what was going on in Northern Ireland,” Nathan proffers. “To play a very small part in this wave of education about what Northern Ireland is really like is such a privilege.”

Is Braniff jealous that some of his Norn Iron acting pals got to be in Kneecap and he wasn’t?

“Completely jealous,” he nods. “That seemed like one hell of a film to shoot. Those boys and girls must have had a serious laugh doing it. If they ever make a Kneecap 2 and need a green, naïve police officer, I’m their man!”

Duly noted. I didn’t think that season 2 of Blue Lights could be bettered – but it was, and then some. One of the most memorable scenes, which had me blubbing like a baby, is when Tommy and his skipper Sandra Cliff, Gerry’s widow, call in on an elderly man who serenades them with a country ballad, not realising it was Sandra and Gerry’s song.

“Oh my god, isn’t Gary Lilburn, who plays the old fella, Raymie, amazing?” Nathan says. “The way he did that scene was exceptional. All we had to do was sit and listen and react to him singing and playing guitar.”

While nothing this year will out-ouch! Niamh Algar’s dispatching of a would-be assassin in The Iris Affair, my nerves are still jangling from seeing Tommy’s fellow new recruit, Shane, being stabbed in the leg by a psychotic woman.

“It’s quite emotional when you see something like that on set,” Nathan reflects. “I’m not sure if it made the final cut, but I wasn’t expecting this spurt of blood which really adds to the intensity of it. Five per cent of your brain is in actor mode knowing it’s not real; the other 95% is telling your body that you’re really in this situation. The adrenaline goes crazy.

“It was genuinely shocking too at the end of series 2 when Richard Dormer’s character was shot dead. I’m still emotional now thinking about it.”

Elsewhere, Dearbháile McKinney, who plays Tommy’s police probationer girlfriend Aisling, comprehensively nails S3’s PTSD storyline.

“She was exceptional,” Nathan agrees. “If you were to speak to her, I think she’d tell you that so much of that comes down to the research she did. Me and Dearbháile spoke to this guy who’d been in a similar situation to Aisling for about an hour. For me to know how to react on screen to Dearbháile, I needed to understand what effect that had on his partner. By the end of that hour, everybody was in floods of tears. That all fed into the authenticity of Dearbháile’s performance. She hit the nail right on the head.”

Nathan doesn’t get to wear a wig or prosthetics in Blue Lights, which means that walking round Belfast he’s instantly recognisable. What’s the reaction been to him playing a PSNI officer who, let’s be honest, aren’t universally loved?

“I’ve only ever encountered positive feedback,” he reports. “The first time I put on that uniform was when we were doing a measure up for the show. We were in the city-centre and went outside to get some natural light for the photos. I was like, ‘I’m fully dressed as a PSNI officer. What if somebody mistakes me for a real Peeler? Not everybody in Belfast holds the police in high esteem for whatever reason.’ I was concerned, definitely, but when people come up to me it’s to say things like, ‘I’ve applied to the PSNI because of you’ or ‘Your show has made me see things from a different perspective.’

“We’re just trying to make this believable drama and somehow it’s had this enormous effect.”

A very good 2025 was crowned in May when Blue Lights won the BAFTA for Best Drama. I assume a fun night out was had by all?

“It was completely crazy!” Nathan concludes. “I showed my mum the schedule for the night when it came through and she was like, ‘The after-party starts at 2am?!’ Which it did and continued till around five o’clock, me being one of the last to leave.

“The whole experience of rocking up to the Royal Festival Hall, sitting down next to people like Damian Lewis who I really admire, and somebody then saying, ‘And the winner is… Blue Lights!’ was incredible.”

• Blue Lights can be seen on the RTÉ and BBC players.