This City Is Ours: First look at BBC’s new crime drama set and filmed in Liverpool

The BBC has released first-look images from This City Is Ours, an intense new crime drama created by Stephen Butchard (The Good Mothers, The Last Kingdom).

Directed by BAFTA award-winning Saul Dibb (The Salisbury Poisonings, The Sixth Commandment), This City Is Ours is a gripping eight-part series is set and filmed right here in Liverpool.

The new pictures give a first look at the This City Is Ours ensemble, including two-time BAFTA TV Award-winning actor 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.

Set and filmed in Liverpool, with additional filming in Spain, 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.

This City is Ours 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.

This City is Ours 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.

As previously announced, This City Is Ours also stars Laura Aikman (Archie, Gavin & Stacey) 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.

This City is Ours was commissioned by Lindsay Salt, Director of BBC Drama.

It was created by Stephen Butchard, who serves as lead writer, with Robbie O’Neill writing further episodes. 

The directors are Saul Dibb (The Salisbury Poisonings, The Sixth Commandment), John Hayes (Nightsleeper, Dublin Murders) and Eshref Reybrouck (Undercover).

The producer is Simon Maloney (Peaky Blinders, I May Destroy You). Executive producers are Andy Harries, Rebecca Hodgson and Sian McWilliams for Left Bank Pictures, Stephen Butchard and Saul Dibb, and Jo McClellan and Sami El Hadi for the BBC. Additional funding and support came from the Liverpool Film Office through its Liverpool City Region Production Fund.

This City Is Ours will premiere on BBC iPlayer and BBC One in the UK in the Spring. Sony Pictures Television will distribute the series internationally.

Find out more about Liverpool Film Office here.

Find all the latest news around Liverpool City Region here.