Blue Lights season two returned with rave reviews on Monday as Sian Brooke reprised her role as Constable Grace Ellis, a social worker turned policeman attempting to get a handle on the crime in Belfast.
It’s the latest of Sian’s series to receive rave reviews of late, having been plucked by BBC bosses to star in several primetime shows on the channel.
An average of 2.7 million viewers tuned into the police drama, with the figure expected to rise in coming days.
As the BBC battles inflation costs and, bosses will no doubt be grateful that Sian is continuing to pull in viewers with her quality performances.
After all, the Welsh actress, 44, has become a familiar face for viewers after appearing in dramas such as The Moorside, Doctor Foster and Sherlock.
Her latest role has the potential to take her from recognisable face to household name, with millions expected to tune in for season two of Blue Lights
How Sian Brooke rose through the ranks from bit parts in crime dramas to land the gritty lead role in popular Belfast police drama Blue Lights
She gained prominence in 2017 when she starred in the fourth and final series of Sherlock as Eurus Holmes, the psychotic younger sister of Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch).
Viewers were left in shock at a twist that revealed Eurus had been masquerading as three different characters.
Sian was praised by viewers for her versatility in the role and her interactions with co-star Benedict, no doubt refined from having worked with him two years prior in the Barbican’s production of Hamlet.
Speaking about the role, Sian revealed that she was also left in the dark when it came to the part, thinking she was auditioning for three separate roles until Sherlock co-creator Mark Gatiss revealed the twist.
Sian told Digital Spy: ‘It was amazing. I kept coming in for these meetings, these secret meetings, and thinking “Why am I [being asked to audition for all these parts]? Oh, there’s just a couple of [small] parts and a big part”.
‘That’s what I thought. I thought “Well, it’s a part in Sherlock, lovely.” And then when they actually revealed what it was I was like “What? What?! What?!”‘
The same year, Sian featured in The Moorside, the BBC’s controversial dramatisation of the Shannon Matthews story and her faked kidnap in 2008.
The opening episode broke records to become the broadcaster’s most watched new drama in recent history, with 9.9 million people tuning in for the first episode of The Moorside, which focused on the real-life hunt for Miss Matthews following her faked kidnap in 2008.
It performed better than Sherlock, whose first episode was watched by 8.7million people when it aired in 2010.
Sian starred as Natalie Brown – a neighbour who had allowed Shannon’s mother Karen (played by Gemma Whelan) to move into her home while searches were being conducted for the missing little girl over 24 days.
Shannon Matthews became a household name at the age of nine, when she went missing from the Moorside estate in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.
But after three weeks of hunting, it emerged that the ‘kidnap’ had actually been staged by the girl’s own mother, Karen Matthews, and her accomplice Michael Donovan. Police found Shannon in the base of a divan bed at Donovan’s flat.
She gained prominence in 2017 when she starred in the fourth and final series of Sherlock as Eurus Holmes, the psychotic younger sister of Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch)
Sian is pictured, left, with Sheridan Smith and Gemma Whelan in ITV’s 2017 drama The Moorside – about the search for missing Yorkshire schoolgirl Shannon Matthews
Sian rounded off the year with a role in season two of Doctor Foster, playing GP Sian Lambert who clashed with Gemma Foster (Suranne Jones).
Her character’s name was no coincidence, with Doctor Foster creator and playwright Mike Bartlett revealing he wrote the role for her without even knowing if she was available or wanted to do it
Mike explained: ‘Sian is one of the best actors I’ve ever seen. Surprising, truthful, moving and funny – she can do it all.
‘I don’t normally think of actors when I write, but yes I had Sian Brooke in mind as Sian in mind from the moment I started writing her. I was too embarrassed to tell her, though I suppose the name was a pretty big clue. I need to hide it better next time.
Mike went on to state that her role in Doctor Foster proved that she was a leading actress in waiting, saying: ‘Sian can and will be holding scenes and shows in her own right as a lead.’
Yet her latest role has the potential to take her from recognisable face to household name, as the star of BBC’s gritty Belfast police drama, Blue Lights.
It follows the long line of crime shows she has found herself in, with roles in A Touch of Frost, Midsomer Murders and New Tricks among others.
Yet it’s hardly surprising that she’s gravitated towards police dramas as the daughter of a former officer.
Speaking to The Sunday Post, Sian revealed that that her father’s work in the police changed her approach to the character, explaining: ‘It’s why I felt such an affinity with the role and that world.
‘It was nice to portray the human aspect of a job which has such high levels of responsibility. It’s a real person – a mum or a dad or a husband or a wife – trying to do their best.
‘I was able to speak to my dad about it – I’d spoken to him about his career anyway, but this provided another level of understanding and opened new conversations.
‘After watching it, he’s remembered other things which have led to lots more conversations.’
Written by the team behind Novichok drama The Salisbury Poisonings, Blue Lights stars Sian as Grace, a single mother and ex-social worker who’s decided to switch careers in mid-life.
Now a probationary cop, she’s frequently out of her depth and finds herself in unexpected danger as she attempts to keep order in post-Troubles Belfast.
Last year the BBC drama was a sleeper hit, with hordes of fans now eagerly awaiting the season two premiere.
For Sian, it’s been a rare chance to work on a long-term character study, given a third and fourth series have already been commissioned.
After graduating from RADA in 2002, she began her career, like many jobbing actors, with one-off appearances in TV shows (pictured on Inspector Lewis in 2014)
As well as several TV appearances, Sian has starred in several theatre productions (pictured in 2006 play Dying City with Andrew Scott)
After graduating from Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in 2002, she began her career, like many jobbing actors, with one-off appearances in TV shows.
In 2020, she reached an international audience with her role in Apple TV+’s Trying, which is currently on its fourth season.
The following year she took on another police role, playing Cressida Dick in Stephen the mini series based on the 1993 murder of Black British teenager Stephen Lawrence.
While a small role, her part in House of the Dragon’s 2022 premiere was also memorable, with her character Queen Aemma Targaryen being subject to a brutal medieval C-section.
It is her latest role that has potential to be her true breakout role, however, with millions tuning in for Blue Light’s season two premiere.
The first season saw her character Constable Grace Ellis torn between her new policing career and her previous turn as a social worker.
Speaking about the role, Sian told The Daily Mail’s Weekend magazine last year: ‘I found it intriguing why somebody in their 40s would be mad enough to change career like that.
‘Grace is a lot braver than I am and a lot more determined. It’s quite inspiring to see a woman like that on screen.’
In 2021 she took on another police role, playing Cressida Dick in Stephen the mini series based on the 1993 murder of Black British teenager Stephen Lawrence
While a small role, her part in House of the Dragon’s 2022 premiere was also memorable, with her character Queen Aemma Targaryen being subject to a brutal medieval C-section (pictured with Paddy Considine as King Viserys Targaryen)
Sian didn’t have to look far for help in fleshing out her role, as her father was happy to help out.
She explained: ‘I asked my dad a lot about protocols. For example, how you respond on the radio if you’re following a car… he was a sort of shorthand dictionary.’
Yet as co-writer Declan Lawn pointed out: ‘Policing in Northern Ireland is different from the rest of the UK because they’ve got a gun on their hip.
‘It’s different because the danger doesn’t stop when the shift ends – they’re checking for bombs under their cars every morning.’
Sian has told how her character is much more settled this season and ‘much more experienced in the job’ but that her home life has been turned ‘upside-down’.
She told the BBC: ‘The world that Declan and Adam have created has expanded even more and you begin to understand the complexities of the crimes the characters are encountering in their day-to-day jobs.
‘The stakes are high. It will be quite explosive, moving and an authentic reflection of some parts of present-day Belfast, but audiences can still expect those comedy beats alongside the serious side of the story.’
As for Sian’s personal life, she is married to actor and director Bill Buckhurst, and they have sons, Archie, nine, and Ben, 11.
Fans may recognise Bill from his stint as the spy Ronson in James Bond movie Skyfall and his 2010 role of Walford High School’s head teacher Mr Allcock in EastEnders.
He also spends time behind the camera and on stage, previously directing Whoopi Goldberg and Jennifer Saunders in Sister Act The Musical.
In 2018, Sian praised her ‘brilliant’ husband as she lamented the gender stereotypes with motherhood.
She explained: ‘He’s brilliant — we share everything. You just have to make it work, by hook or by crook.
‘But I still feels it’s looked upon that as a woman it’s your responsibility. It’s infuriating. We’re meant to be superwomen, with these great jobs, but we’re also meant to do what did before.’
Sian is married to actor and director Bill Buckhurst – who has starred in Skyfall and EastEnders – and they have sons, Archie, nine, and Ben, 11 (pictured last month)
Blue Lights stars Sian as Grace, a single mother and ex-social worker who’s decided to switch careers in mid-life (pictured with Martin McCann as Stevie Neil)
While her children are now much older, she is still dealing with juggling work and motherhood, especially given Blue Lights requires her to spend four months in Northern Ireland shooting.
‘Being away is the hardest part,’ she told The Sunday Times.
‘I love the job, it’s such a wonderful thing to work on with brilliant people. But the hardest part is that it just so happens to be a plane ride away.’
As for how she and Bill manage their hectic schedules, she confessed: ‘Between us [our life] is a bit of a mish-mash. But it all works itself out and we haven’t totally messed up our kids so far.’
Blue Lights airs on Monday at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer.
