Sean Bean is among the ensemble for epic new BBC crime drama This City Is Ours. Here are the details.
Stephen Butchard has been a consistent presence on British TV screens since the early 2000s, creating the underrated Ray Winstone crime thriller Vincent and Warren Brown police drama Good Cop.
His latest series is the epic crime drama This City Is Ours, which is currently filming in Liverpool and Spain.
The synopsis reads as follows:
Set and filmed in Liverpool, This City is Ours is the story of Michael, a man who for all of his adult life has been involved in organised crime, working for his friend and the gang leader Ronnie. 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. It is the story of 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. It 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.
The BBC has confirmed that Sean Bean will play gang leader Ronnie Phelan, with James Nelson-Joyce as Ronnie’s friend, Michael Kavanagh. Hannah Onslow will play Diana Williams, Michael’s partner, and Jack McMullen plays Ronnie’s son, Jamie Phelan. Completing the ensemble is Julie Graham as Elaine, who acts as head of the Phelan family alongside Ronnie.
The cast also includes Laura Aikman as Rachel Duffy, Kevin Harvey as Bobby Duffy, Saoirse-Monica Jackson as Cheryl Crawford, Mike Noble as Banksey, Bobby Schofield as Bonehead, Darci Shaw as Melissa Phelan, and Stephen Walters as Davy Crawford.
Butchard created the series and serves as lead writer, with Robbie O’Neill writing further episodes. Saul Dibb is directing.
We’ll keep you updated as we hear more.
