As fictional police officers, they should be well used to courts.
But yesterday, the stars of the BBC’s Blue Lights took to a very different one as they helped launch a new sports facility.
The Belfast Boat Club, which doubles up as a tennis club, is the first in Northern Ireland to have converted one of its 12 courts to three padel courts.
Padel is a racquet sport that uses the same scoring conventions as lawn tennis, but its courts are around a third smaller.
Katherine Devlin focuses hard on the ball. Photo: Andrew McCarroll/Pacemaker
Martin McCann (Stevie Neil), Nathan Braniff (Tommy Foster) and Katherine Devlin (Annie Conlon) were on hand to try out the sport, which is growing in popularity.
They were coached by Deborah Kinder as they played on one of the club’s new state-of-the-art courts.
Blue Lights, which follows a group of new recruits in the PSNI, has been a huge hit since its debut in 2023. A third and fourth series are in the works.
Brendan Quinn, who played One Day’s Callum, and Maria Connolly, who portrayed evil prison guard Allison in Line of Duty, are among the stars signing up.
Braniff said: “It was announced there recently that some new faces were coming to season three, and everything is going very well.”
Cast members Martin McCann, Katherine Devlin and Nathan Braniff at Belfast Boat Club. Photo: Andrew McCarroll/Pacemaker
With over 30 million padel players worldwide, the sport is booming.
The boat club, which celebrates its 150th anniversary next year, required a major financial investment for the work and the club hopes to recoup by opening up the padel courts to non-members.
Braniff added: “It was nice to come down here to do a bit of team bonding.
“I don’t know about being a natural at the sport, I played a little bit before.
“I did some clubs in Spain, which were very tennis-orientated, obviously there were some padel games played there as well. It must be like riding a bike, you just don’t forget.”
Welcoming the stars was former president of Belfast Boat Club, Ann Gorman.
She said: “We are a tennis, sports and rowing club. But we decided to rip up what used to be our centre court here in order to put in these three padel tennis courts.
Martin McCann practices playing padel. Photo: Andrew McCarroll/Pacemaker
Cast member Martin McCann practices swinging the bat.
“Padel tennis is really growing and a popular sport in the world, there are around 30 million people who are playing it.
“It is the way to go. For the first time ever, we are going to open our tennis courts to non-members.
“This was a big investment, so we are going to have people coming in to play.
“The producer of Blue Lights is actually a member here.
“He kindly asked if three of the cast could actually come out and help us with the launch of the padel court.”
Elise Todd, marketing director at the club, said she was “really excited” by their famous guests.
“It is a fast-growing sport, and it is great to get local actors to come down to support it and have a go,” she said.
“I think there has been a really good turnout and everyone is now really excited.”