The Merseyside mob drama This City Is Ours returns to BBC screens today with, if it’s possible, even more swagger.
That’s what happens when your first season becomes a word-of-mouth hit, racking up millions of viewers, and you get the greenlight for a third season before the second has even landed.
It might not be called The Phelans, but the show has been billed the Scouse Sopranos. This City Is Ours star James Nelson-Joyce ever-so-slightly rolls his eyes when Metro raises the comparison. I suspect this isn’t the first time he’s been asked about it.
‘It’s the best drama ever written. So to be put into that category, it’s an amazing privilege, but I think those are very big shoes to fill,’ he says. Also, things didn’t work out terribly well for that Michael.
The show hits the ground running in its return, set just days after the shock hit-and-run of a Colombian drug lord that culminated the first season. This eight-parter revolves around the dark and unpredictable ramifications.
Michael Kavanagh (Nelson-Joyce) thinks he has escaped the ‘lemo’ (cocaine) game with his love Diana (Hannah Onslow). But inevitably, he’s pulled back into the Liverpool action.
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My unlikely word of mouth to the Stephen Butchard-written show was when interviewing a convicted drug smuggler about the authenticity of gangland dramas. He singled out This City Is Ours over others like Top Boy.
Your imagination can run a bit wild wondering how Butchard hit the nail on the head so well. Nelson-Joyce explains it was a long-time ‘passion project’ for the writer, who also penned Shardlake and The Last Kingdom for TV.
‘He has worked on it for a very, very long time. And I think not only has he wrote the world perfectly, but he wrote the characters where you could fall in love and hate at the same time,’ Nelson-Joyce says.
Everyone does lovable acts, but despicable things at the same time
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Onslow adds: ‘Everyone can recognise someone they know in one of the characters. They could be your next door neighbour.’
Nelson-Joyce says they routinely get fans of the show approaching them to gush about Elaine or say they want a mate like Banksy – particularly this second time they filmed in Liverpool.
It was ‘definitely different’, says Onslow. ‘First series, I was going into coffee shops and reading the script, and I was like, I can’t do that this time, because people would recognise us.’
They had looky-loos following the production, so given the number of street scenes on the show, certain exterior moments had to be blocked off to avoid spoiler-geddon.
Liverpudlian Nelson-Joyce said he found it particularly strange. ‘I’m used to it on a day-to-day basis. But then when we’re filming, there’s people with iPhones – other phones are available – they’re videoing and people are constantly asking you what’s going on.’
They weren’t the only show in town, either. Sam Mendes was well underway filming his four Beatles biopics across the city, which created logistical issues for the This City Is Ours team.
‘They nicked our base at one point,’ says Onslow, still miffed about losing the spot near Liverpool’s Albert Dock.
‘We loved that base as well,’ says Nelson-Joyce. ‘I wanted to go down there. This city is ours, you know what I mean?’
Michael squaring off with the Beatles cast in their full Sgt. Pepper’s garb would have made for a thrilling interlude in the show. Although, this season has enough brutality as is. Perhaps for season three.
This City Is Ours returns to BBC One and iPlayer tonight at 9pm.