Blue Lights is the newest police drama for the BBC, coming to BBC One on Monday March 27 — here’s everything you need to know

Ahead of Monday’s transmission on BBC One (including Northern Ireland), the BBC has released a guide to the show, including numerous interviews with cast and creators. Here’s the low-down on the new show:

Created and written by Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson, Blue Lights follows three rookie police officers working in Belfast, a uniquely dangerous place to be a police officer.

Grace (Siân Brooke), a mother of a teenage boy, has made the decision in her 40s to leave her steady job as a social worker to join the Police Service of Northern Ireland. Having previously worked in social care she straddles a fine line between the personal and professional. It’s the biggest gamble of her life, and just a few weeks into the job, she’s making so many mistakes that her decision no longer looks like a winning bet.

Her fellow rookies are Annie (Katherine Devlin), who struggles with the fact that her chosen path may mean having to leave everything she’s ever known behind, and Tommy (Nathan Braniff), who is desperate to prove himself, despite being disastrously inept at the practical side of frontline response policing.

All three are new police officers in their probation period with the PSNI, the odds are at least one of them isn’t going to last. The pressure is immense, but if they succumb to it, they won’t survive. Often the rookie officers don’t know the extent of the peril they are in, or who they can trust. What’s it like to have to hide your job from neighbours, friends and even family? How do you distinguish between who needs your help and who wants you dead simply because of the uniform you wear?

Lawn and Patterson previously worked on The Salisbury Poisonings, and grew up in Northern Ireland. The series starts on Monday 27, and after the first episode, the whole series will be available on iPlayer.