Nathan Braniff makes Tommy Foster’s inexperience in Blue Lights matter without pleading for our sympathy. It is persuasive, unshowy acting, though the evidence for a broader judgement of his work remains limited to one substantial screen role.
Fi1m perspective
Tommy Foster has not learnt enough to take his own competence for granted, and Nathan Braniff makes sure we remember it. He allows the probationary officer in Blue Lights (2023) to stay unsure of himself, which matters in a police drama built around beginners. We worried about Tommy because Braniff makes inexperience feel like a continuing risk, rather than something the character will conveniently outgrow between scenes. It is a quietly persuasive performance, and a substantial reason we recommend the series.
Tommy was Braniff’s first screen role, so there is no earlier screen work against which to measure it. What we can assess is how well he belongs in this ensemble. Alongside Sian Brooke’s Grace Ellis and Katherine Devlin’s Annie Conlon, he helps make learning the job a continuing part of the drama. Devlin and Braniff are particularly good at allowing their characters to seem vulnerable without soliciting sympathy. His rapport with Richard Dormer also makes the mentor-pupil relationship convincing, giving us another reason to care about how Tommy gets on.
His preparation has included research into police body language, training and procedures, but the useful result is not a display of professional polish. He leaves room for humour alongside the pressure, which keeps Tommy from becoming merely the nervous young officer. There is a limit to what the acting can repair. Adam Patterson and Declan Lawn’s writing uses the rookies to explain the work, and those explanations can be conspicuous. Braniff helps by giving us somebody to worry about while the programme tells us what we need to know.
This is enough to make us interested in another part, though not enough to predict what sort of actor he will become. One substantial screen credit leaves plenty untested, however well it fits him. We would want to see him playing a different kind of character before making larger claims. Start with Blue Lights if a familiar police-drama set-up is no obstacle; the pleasure is in watching actors make its beginners worth your concern.
Biography
Nathan Braniff is a stage and television actor from Belfast. He trained at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts after attending Campbell College in Belfast.
Braniff made his screen debut as rookie police officer Tommy Foster in the BBC One series Blue Lights (2023–), a role he has continued in subsequent series. His earlier stage work includes the title role in a 2011 production of Bugsy Malone at the Grand Opera House, Belfast.
