It’s time to place your bets on whether Sean Bean can stay alive to the end of the series as the BBC releases some “first look” images of epic new crime drama ‘This City is Ours‘, premiering this Spring.
Set and filmed in Liverpool, with additional filming in Spain, ‘This City is Ours’ is the story of Michael (James Nelson Joyce), a man who for all of his adult life has been involved in organised crime, working for his friend and the gang leader Ronnie (Sean Bean). When Ronnie begins to hint at retirement, Michael too begins to imagine another life. Because, 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 (Hannah Onslow).
The drama follows Michael and Diana’s love affair, set against the disintegration of Michael’s crime gang. For years, together with Ronnie, Michael has successfully been bringing cocaine into the City and beyond, directly from Columbia; but when a shipment goes missing, he knows their Kingdom is under attack.
This series explores what happens when Ronnie’s son Jamie (Jack McMullen) 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.
The ensemble cast includes two-time BAFTA award-winner Sean Bean (Marriage, Time) as gang leader Ronnie Phelan, James Nelson-Joyce (Bird, A Thousand Blows) as Ronnie’s friend, Michael Kavanagh, Hannah Onslow (Empire of Light, This Is Going to Hurt) as Diana Williams, Michael’s partner, Jack McMullen (Hijack, Ford V Ferrari) as Ronnie’s son, Jamie Phelan, and Julie Graham (Shetland, Time) as Elaine, head of the Phelan family alongside her husband Ronnie.
Also starring are Laura Aikman (Gavin & Stacey, Archie) as Rachel Duffy, Kevin Harvey (Treason, Time) as Bobby Duffy, Saoirse-Monica Jackson (Derry Girls, Upgraded) as Cheryl Crawford, Mike Noble (Shardlake, The Long Shadow) as Banksey, Bobby Schofield (SAS Rogue Heroes, The Suspect) as Bonehead, Darci Shaw (Judy, A Thousand Blows) as Melissa Sullivan, and Stephen Walters (Slow Horses, Anne) as Davy Crawford.
The brand-new crime drama comes from Stephen Butchard (The Good Mothers, The Last Kingdom, Five Daughters), and is directed by BAFTA award-winning Saul Dibb (The Salisbury Poisonings, The Sixth Commandment), John Hayes (Nightsleeper, Dublin Murders), and Eshref Reybrouck (Undercover). The eight-part series is made by Left Bank Pictures for BBC iPlayer and BBC One. Worldwide distribution is handled by Sony Pictures Television.
‘This City is Ours‘ does not have an exact premiere date but will air in Spring 2025 in the UK on BBC One and iPlayer. If you want to keep track of this or any other show, you can add it via our Never Miss system, and you’ll be notified when it gets a UK premiere date.
