Sean Bean will lead the cast of This City Is Ours, a BBC One drama about "family and love destroyed and corrupted by ambition, pride and greed".
Created by writer Stephen Butchard, whose previous work includes The Good Mothers, The Last Kingdom and Five Daughters, the eight-part series follows Michael, a drug-trafficker who reconsiders his life after falling in love.
Bean (Game of Thrones) plays Michael's boss, gang leader Ronnie Phelan, who begins eyeing retirement just as a rival organisation prepares to attack.
Michael (James Nelson-Joyce) dreams of following his boss and leaving his life of crime behind, but faces opposition from Ronnie's ruthless son Jamie (Jack McMullen), who doesn't want to share his father's criminal empire.
Set in Liverpool, the eight-part drama will be directed by Saul Dibb (Journey’s End, The Sixth Commandment) and produced by Simon Maloney (Time, I May Destroy You).
“This City is Ours is character-driven crime drama that demands to be seen," says Lindsay Salt, Director of BBC Drama. "Stephen Butchard’s vibrant and propulsive scripts offer a new take on the genre, mixing power politics with the brutality of gang life. It’s drama at its most tense!”
Here's everything we know about the gangster drama...
This City Is Ours release date
Filming began in Liverpool and Spain in Spring 2024, meaning we can expect this one to arrive on BBC One and the iPlayer at some point in 2025. Sony Pictures Television will distribute the series internationally.
This City Is Ours plot
A BBC statement reads as follows..
"This City is Ours is the story of Michael, a man who for all of his adult life has been involved in organised crime... but for the first time in his life, Michael is in love. For the first time in his life, he sees beyond the day-to-day, he sees a future: something to win and something to lose — Diana.
"The eight-part series tells the story of Michael and Diana's love affair, set against the disintegration of Michael’s crime gang. For years, together with his friend Ronnie, Michael has successfully been bringing cocaine into the City and beyond, directly from Columbia; but when a shipment goes missing, then he knows their Kingdom is under attack.
"The drama explores what happens when Ronnie’s son Jamie decides he wants to inherit their kingdom and that there is no longer a place for Michael at the table. Both Michael and Jamie have bold ideas to modernise the gang and they will battle for control of it. But Michael’s biggest battle will be to save the woman he loves and the child he has always wanted.
"This is a story about family and love destroyed and corrupted by ambition, pride and greed. It’s a story about power: what we will do to secure and keep it."
This City Is Ours cast
James Nelson-Joyce (The Family Pile) will lead the cast as Michael Kavanagh, while Jack McMullen (Hijack) plays his friend and Ronnie's son, Jamie. It's not the first time to the two actors from Merseyside have appeared alongside each other and co-starred in Time and Little Boy Blue.
Sean Bean, who plays gang boss Ronnie Phelan, also starred in Time (see below) and has also enjoyed a celebrated career on the big and small screen, including appearances in fantasy epics The Fellowship of the Ring and Game of Thrones. In recent years he's won an International Emmy for his role in Accused and BAFTAs for Time and Broken, both of which aired on BBC One.
Hannah Onslow (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, This Is Going To Hurt) will play Michael's girlfriend, Diana
This City Is Ours co-stars Julie Graham (Shetland) as Elaine, Ronnie's wife and family co-leader, with Laura Aikman (Gavin & Stacey), Kevin Harvey (Time), Saoirse-Monica Jackson (Derry Girls), Mike Noble (Shardlake), Bobby Schofield (SAS Rogue Heroes), Darci Shaw (Judy) and Stephen Walters (Slow Horses) also in the cast.
This Is Our City trailer
With filming yet to begin, there's no trailer available for this one yet. But we'll be sure to post it here when it lands...
