Bloodlands (TV series)

Bloodlands is a police procedural television series set in Northern Ireland that premiered on BBC One on 21 February 2021. It was created by Chris Brandon and developed by HTM Television,^[1] a joint venture between Hat Trick Productions and the producer Jed Mercurio.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The show was renewed for a second series on 14 March 2021,^[7] with filming commencing in February 2022.^[8]

Bloodlands
Series 1 DVD cover
Genre	Crime Drama
Created by	Chris Brandon
Written by	Chris Brandon
Directed by	Pete Travis Jon East Audrey Cook
Starring	James Nesbitt Lorcan Cranitch Lisa Dwan Ian McElhinney Charlene McKenna Lola Petticrew Michael Smiley Chris Walley
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	10
Production
Executive producers	Jed Mercurio Jimmy Mulville Mark Redhead Tommy Bulfin Tom Lazenby
Producer	Christopher Hall
Production location	Northern Ireland
Running time	57 minutes
Production company	HTM Television
Original release
Network	BBC One
Release	21 February 2021 (2021-02-21) – 23 October 2022 (2022-10-23)

Bloodlands was filmed mainly in the rural area around Strangford Lough in the east of Northern Ireland.^{[9][10][11][12][13]}

Cast and characters

Main

• James Nesbitt^[14][15] as DCI Tom Brannick
• Lorcan Cranitch^[16] as DCS Jackie Twomey
• Charlene McKenna^[17] as DS Niamh McGovern
• Chris Walley as DC Billy “Birdy” Bird
• Lola Petticrew as Izzy Brannick

Series 1

• Michael Smiley as Justin “Dinger” Bell
• Susan Lynch as DCI Heather Pentland
• Ian McElhinney as Adam Corry
• Lisa Dwan as Tori Matthews
• Peter Ballance as Patrick Keenan
• Kathy Kiera Clarke as Claire Keenan
• Cara Kelly as Siobhan Harkin
• Caolan Byrne as Ben McFarland
• Valerie Lilley as Linda Corry

Series 2

• Victoria Smurfit as Olivia Foyle
• Diarmaid Murtagh as Robert Dardis
• Jonjo O'Neill as Ryan Savage

Episodes

Series overview

Series	Episodes		Originally released		Average viewership (in millions)
			First released	Last released
1	4		21 February 2021 (2021-02-21)	14 March 2021 (2021-03-14)	9.24
2	6		18 September 2022 (2022-09-18)	23 October 2022 (2022-10-23)	TBA

Series 1 (2021)

No.	Title	Original release date	U.K. viewers (millions) [18]
1	"Episode One[19]"	21 February 2021 (2021-02-21)	10.32[20]
2	"Episode Two[21]"	28 February 2021 (2021-02-28)	9.22
3	"Episode Three[22]"	7 March 2021 (2021-03-07)	9.28
4	"Episode Four[23]"	14 March 2021 (2021-03-14)	8.15

Series 2 (2022)

No.	Title	Original release date	U.K. viewers (millions) [18]
1	"Episode One[24]"	18 September 2022 (2022-09-18)	3.87[25]
2	"Episode Two[26]"	25 September 2022 (2022-09-25)	3.33[27]
3	"Episode Three[28]"	2 October 2022 (2022-10-02)	3.33[29]
4	"Episode Four[30]"	9 October 2022 (2022-10-09)	3.72
5	"Episode Five[31]"	16 October 2022 (2022-10-16)	3.65
6	"Episode Six[32]"	23 October 2022 (2022-10-23)	3.84

Broadcast

Series 1 was streamed on Acorn TV in the United States and Canada in 2021.^[33] Series 2 was streamed on Acorn TV in February 2023.^[34]

Reception

Critical reception

The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave the series an 83% approval rating, with an average rating of 6.9/10, based on 24 reviews. The critical consensus reads, "Bloodlands at times threatens to buckle under the weight of its heavy load, but thrilling twists and incredible performances hold steady to create an engaging, challenging viewing experience.”^[35] On Metacritic, the series has a weighted average score of 76 out of 100 based on 9 reviews, indicating "generally favourable reviews”.^[35]

Abby Robinson, reviewing for Digital Spy, described the opening episode of the drama as "heavily plot-driven, which comes at the expense of character developments" and gave it three out of five.^[36] Lucy Mangan of The Guardian, described the drama as "enjoyably dense with enough black humour to let it breathe" and gave it four out of five.^[37] Ed Power said the first episode of the series was "So grim – and a seriously bad advertisement for a weekend break in Belfast" when reviewing on behalf of The Irish Times,^[38] and Lauren Morris, reviewing on behalf of the Radio Times called it "An unpredictable thriller with all the hallmarks of a Jed Mercurio drama".^[39]

Awards and nominations

Year	Category	Award	Nominee	Result
2021	Best Actor in a Lead Role - Drama	Irish Film and Television Awards	James Nesbitt	Nominated[40]
2022	Best Actor in a Series, Drama/Genre	Satellite Awards	James Nesbitt	Nominated[41]