BBC is about to release new gripping crime drama hailed ‘Liverpool’s Sopranos’
The eight-part mob drama arrives imminently.
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Previous Page Next PageNew BBC crime thriller This City is Ours has already been compared to The Sopranos as it imminently hits screens.
The eight-part gangland drama from The Last Kingdom’s Stephen Butchard stars Sean Bean as gang leader Ronnie Phelan alongside James Nelson-Joyce, Hannah Onslow, Jack McMullen and Julie Graham as matriarch Elaine.
The Liverpool-based drama follows ‘the story of Michael (James), a man who for all of his adult life has been involved in organised crime…but 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).
As Michael and Diana’s love affair heats up, his gang transporting cocaine from Columbia into the city starts to fall apart at the seams when a delivery goes mysteriously missing.
When Ronnie’s son Jamie (Jack) tries to claim a seat at the top, however, a power struggle could put everything Michael has worked so hard for at risk.
This City is Ours could become the next classic crime drama (Picture: BBC/Left Bank Pictures/James Stack)‘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 synopsis concludes.
One the other side of the tale we have Derry Girls star Saoirse-Monica Jackson and Slow Horses actor Stephen Walters, playing members of the rival Crawford family.
Early reviews have started to roll in for the show with NME describing Ronnie as a ‘kind of Sheffield Tony Soprano’.
Sean Bean plays a drug lord looking to retire (Picture: BBC/Left Bank Pictures/James Stack)The review continues: ‘If the series were only concerned with the grim machismo of drug deals and violence, it would be fine. But the layering of other storylines, one in particular, makes This City Is Ours a gripping watch.’
The Evening Standard’s glowing four-star review called the mob drama ‘tense, gritty and supremely violent’.
Discussing how This City of Ours fits into the world of high-brow crime dramas, Time star James told Hollywood Reporter: ‘Everyone is complex. I think that’s the beauty of any great writing, which is what Stephen’s done.
Derry Girls icon Saoirse Monica-Jackson also features in the new show (Picutre: BBC/Left Bank Pictures/James Stack)‘When you watch Walter White or you watch The Sopranos, and you watch all these programs, even though these people are doing bad things, you still root for them. We all love Walter White. We all love Tony Soprano.’
Hannah added to the BBC that it is ‘a drama that I can honestly say I have never seen on television before’ noting that there was ‘something for everyone’.
And The Lord of the Rings star called it ‘mould-breaking television’, setting the bar quite high.
All of episodes This City is Ours arrive on BBC iPlayer on Sunday, March 23. The first episode will air at 9pm on BBC One.
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