This City Is Ours is an epic tale of family, love and the destructive power of ambition and greed.
Set within the underworld of gangs, drugs and organised crime in the heart of Liverpool, the new BBC drama stars Sean Bean as a drug lord mulling over retirement while his close friend and his son are both waiting in the wings.
Thrown into the mix is an unlikely romance which could change the course of one of their lives forever.
Stephen Butchard, the show’s creator, writer and executive producer, said: “This drama is very much about people chasing dreams.
“I want viewers to spend time with these people to get to know them and fall in love with them.
“Yes, fall in love – even if they do some terrifying, brutal, shocking things throughout.”
This City Is Ours is the story of Michael Kavanagh (James Nelson-Joyce), a man involved in organised crime his entire adult life, who for the first time has fallen in love.
He sees a future, beyond his criminal underworld, with Diana (Hannah Onslow), and considers getting out.
But as their love affair develops, the crime gang he operates within begins to disintegrate.
As the right-hand man to gang leader Ronnie Phelan (Sean Bean), the pair have been successfully bringing cocaine directly from Columbia into the city for years.
So when a shipment goes missing, Michael knows the empire they have built up is under attack.
At the same time, Ronnie is considering retirement and his son Jamie (Jack McMullen) has ambitions to take over and push out Michael.
Both Michael and Jamie have bold ideas to modernise the gang and a fight for control begins.
However, Michael’s biggest battle will be to save the woman he loves and the child he has always wanted.
This Is Our City is a story about family and love, destroyed and corrupted by ambition, pride and greed and the lengths people will go to hold on to power.
Who is in the cast of This City Is Ours?
James Nelson-Joyce stars as Michael Kavanagh (Photo: James Stack/BBC/Left Bank Pictures)
James Nelson-Joyce stars as Michael Kavanagh, an organised crime leader torn between power and love.
Discussing his character, he said: “Michael has so many layers.
“The complex character of Michael is someone I knew I could work on.
“I think viewers will like him and probably feel guilty about it after some of the things he has done.
“He’s fallen in love for the first time, and he likes it.
“He wants it to work and needs it to work.
“The truth is he wants to change, and the driving force is that he can see the bigger picture with a better life but he has to weigh up the pros and the cons.”
Nelson-Joyce, 35, is a native of Liverpool and has earned a reputation for playing villains.
He played teenage gang member James Yates in the 2017 drama Little Boy Blue.
Since then, he played Johno in Time, Spider in The Outlaws, Brian Reader in The Gold and Greg in The Family Pile.
He is currently starring as Edward “Treacle” Goodson in the Disney+ drama A Thousand Blows.
Sean Bean
Sean Bean plays organised crime boss Ronnie Phelan (Photo: James Stack/BBC/Left Bank Pictures)Sean Bean plays the drug lord Ronnie Phelan, patriarch of an organised crime empire from which he is considering retiring.
The actor said he knew he wanted to play Ronnie after reading just a few pages of the script.
He said: “By page nine I knew I wanted to be Ronnie.
“He is someone eyeing up retirement, just as a rival gang organisation are preparing to attack.”
The multi award-winning actor, 65, rose to prominence as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company before becoming a household name as Richard Sharpe in the historical drama Sharpe and its spin-off series.
On film, he has starred in Patriot Games, Goldeneye, The Lord of the Rings movies, Troy and North Country among others.
While on television, he has appeared in shows such as Game of Thrones, Missing, Legends, The Oath and Time.
Hannah Onslow plays Diana Williams ( Photo: James Stack/ BBC/Left Bank Pictures)
Hannah Onslow plays Diana Williams, the woman with whom Michael has fallen in love.
Onslow said of her character: “She hasn’t had a typical childhood. Diana has a dark history and what I love about her in particular, is that she hasn’t had a ‘normal’ life, but any girl could be Diana and that is one of the things I think that is so clever about how Stephen has written her.”
Onslow, 26, played Elise in Ridley Road, Erika van Hegen in This Is Going to Hurt, Lizzie Siddal in The Doll Factory and Emily Dunn in Belgravia: The Next Chapter.
She also appeared in the 2022 film Empire of Light.
Jack McMullen
Jack McMullen is Jamie Phelan in the show (Photo: James Stack/BBC/Left Bank Pictures)Jack McMullen appears as Jamie Phelan, son of Ronnie and heir apparent to the organised crime empire.
The actor said of the script: “Every character is flawed and that’s what makes it interesting.”
McMullen, also from Liverpool, rose to fame playing Josh McLoughlin/Dixon in the soap opera Brookside.
He then starred in Grange Hill and Waterloo Road before appearing in Little Boy Blue, Time and Hijack.
On film, he has appeared in Brotherhood and The Souvenir.
The remaining cast of This City Is Ours includes:
Darci Shaw as Melissa Phelan (A Thousand Blows, The Irregulars) Julie Graham as Elaine Phelan (Ridley, Shetland) Saoirse-Monica Jackson as Cheryl Crawford (Derry Girls, The Decameron) Stephen Walters as Davy Crawford (Outlander, Slow Horses) Laura Aikman as Rachel Duffy (Gavin & Stacey, Joan) Kevin Harvey as Bobby Duffy (The Inheritance, Treason) Bobby Schofield as Bonehead (Rogue Heroes, The Suspect) Nicholas Bishop as Ricardo (Industry, The Critic) Adam Abbou as Freddie (Waterloo Road, Marked Men) Shaun Fagan as Barney (Boiling Point, The Responder) Mike Noble as Banksey (Home Fires, Shardlake)This City Is Ours is set and filmed in the north west city of Liverpool.
There was also some additional filming in Marbella on the Costa del Sol in the south of Spain.
Film crews were in Liverpool last summer and spotted in Hope Street and around the grade II- isted building Exchange Flags.
They were also seen in Ormskirk Road in Aintree and St Paul’s Square.
Liverpool provided the backdrop for ‘This Is Our City’ (Photo: James Stack/BBC/Left Bank Pictures)Speaking about the filming experience in Liverpool, Sean Bean said it was “always a joy to visit and work in” Liverpool.
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He added: “It is a special place and has been good to me and it has a special place in my heart.
“The people welcome you with open arms and that makes things so much easier for any production crew.
“They are proud to have you in their city, using their home as a location is recognition of its appeal.
“They are also grateful that the city’s economy benefits from being one of the most used places to film.
“The city looks brilliant on film, from the waterfront to Chinatown, and across to the Wirral, where Ronnie lives.
“This City Is Ours is a great title in many ways because it is defiant and triumphant.”
When is it on and how many episodes are there?
The City Is Ours is an eight-part series which will premiere on BBC One on Sunday 23 March at 9pm.
The seven remaining episodes will then air weekly on Sundays in the same time slot.
All eight instalments will also be available to stream on the BBC iPlayer from 6am on Sunday 23 March.
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