THIS CITY IS OURS - Sun 9pm bbc 1 - TV PACE NO SPOILERS

[Blondeshavemorefun]

This City Is Ours stars Sean Bean, Julie Graham and Jack McMullen and follows the big troubles of a Liverpool crime family.

the eight-part series follows Michael, a drug-trafficker who reconsiders his life after falling in love.

Sean Bean (Game of Thrones) plays Michael's boss, gang leader Ronnie Phelan, who begins eyeing retirement just as a rival organisation prepares to attack.

Michael (James Nelson-Joyce) dreams of following his boss and leaving his life of crime behind, but faces opposition from Ronnie's ruthless son Jamie (Jack McMullen), who doesn't want to share his father's criminal empire.

This City is Ours is the story of Michael, 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. "The eight-part series tells the story of Michael and Diana's love affair, set against the disintegration of Michael’s crime gang.

For years, together with his friend Ronnie, Michael has successfully been bringing cocaine into the City and beyond, directly from Columbia; but when a shipment goes missing, then he knows their Kingdom is under attack.

"The drama 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."

James Nelson-Joyce (The Family Pile) will lead the cast as Michael Kavanagh, while Jack McMullen (Hijack) plays his friend and Ronnie's son, Jamie.

It's not the first time to the two actors from Merseyside have appeared alongside each other and co-starred in Time (https://www.whattowatch.com/watching-guides/a-quick-guide-to-sean-beans-new-prison-drama-time)
and
Little Boy Blue (https://www.whattowatch.com/news/i-was-so-nervous-about-meeting-rhyss-mum-says-little-boy-blue-star-465133)
.

Sean Bean, who plays gang boss Ronnie Phelan, also starred in Time (see below) and has also enjoyed a celebrated career on the big and small screen, including appearances in fantasy epics The Fellowship of the Ring and Game of Thrones. In recent years he's won an International Emmy for his role in Accused and BAFTAs for Time and Broken, both of which aired on BBC One.

Hannah Onslow (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, This Is Going To Hurt) will play Michael's girlfriend, Diana
This City Is Ours co-stars Julie Graham (Shetland) as Elaine, Ronnie's wife and family co-leader, Laura Aikman (Archie, Gavin & Stacey) as Rachel Duffy, Kevin Harvey (Treason, Time) as Bobby Duffy, Saoirse-Monica Jackson (Derry Girls, Upgraded) as Cheryl Crawford and Mike Noble (Shardlake, The Long Shadow (https://www.whattowatch.com/watching-guides/the-long-shadow-release-date-cast-plot-and-everything-we-know)) as Banksey
Elsewhere, Bobby Schofield (SAS Rogue Heroes (https://www.whattowatch.com/watching-guides/sas-rogue-heroes-season-3-everything-we-know)
, The Suspect
) plays Bonehead, Darci Shaw (
Judy,
A Thousand Blows (https://www.whattowatch.com/watching-guides/a-thousand-blows-cast-plot-and-all-about-the-boxing-period-drama)
) plays Melissa Sullivan,and Stephen Walters (
Slow Horses, Anne
) plays Davy Crawford.

I like the music too. Matt Monro and the Spanish version of House of the Rising Sun with completely different lyrics to the English one.

Davy had a contact at the docks and each time Ronnie & co ordered a shipment when it arrived the contact would watch it go through Customs to see if it got searched or passed straight through and let Davy know.

If it was searched then there would be a strong possibility that the drugs had been found so it wasn’t safe to collect them as the authorities would be watching the container and catch them in the act. Instead it was parked up out of the way somewhere until Ronnie & Co knew it wasn’t being watched. If it passed straight through then all was well and the drugs could be collected straight away.

Davy was a rat and lied and said it had been searched which meant someone else had the opportunity to steal the drugs whilst it was parked up somewhere.

I can’t tell you who the ‘someone else’ is as that would be quite a major spoiler 😂

Absolutely not. Keep stum please 😀

Eva Morgan who played Molly, the girlfriend of the guy who was beaten up at home (still not sure why???), is a genuine Scouser, but the scene was so quick and violent that you barely got to hear her voice as she was mostly screaming. She also played the lead Kelly in Channel 4's The Gathering last year.

I'm reading the (partial) reviews about how this sets out to do the Existential Gangsta schtick of The Sopranos (or maybe Beat Kitano, arthouse nerds), then I'm reading about the actual mechanics of the Gak trade and middle class cokeheads fuelling the County Lines trade

https://unherd.com/2025/04/surrey-cokeheads-are-lining-up-chaos/

I missed the episode the other night, but if it's not showing the cuckooing of vulnerable adults or the full chain of the business it's not really grasping it in the way like The Wire did

E3 tonight

not sure how he’s gonna get out of stabbing Ronnie unless Denys it …..

choea ensure in the aftermath of a shocking death and Michele takes control and agree how to get the body back to Liverpool

I'm abroad so have to avoid this thread until Friday evening.

I’ve binged watched the lot and I loved it. My only critique is that I find Michael’s incredibly slow movements ALL the time absolutely enraging.

Can uou watch on iPlayer. That’s what I do when abroad ? Mainly ee !!

The smell by day 3/4 would have been bad, I know they’d got a freezer but it was turned off for 24 hours on the ferry - the smell would have been horrendous

Darci Shaw who plays Melissa is Liverpudlian.

have you send it all as we haven’t seen this so no spoilers please or talking about e3 as that’s on tonight

They had a battery hooked up to it.

Yes we are busy checking out the music!

I'm loving the clothes - especially the pink feather thing at the christening 😂

Why didn't they just cremate Ronnie in a dodgy Spanish bakery somewhere then take his ashes home? Less chance of getting caught. They can't have a burial here without a death certificate surely?

Wouldn't it have been simpler for Michael to manoeuvre Ronnie into pool somehow? He was dead drunk and would have drowned with minimal assistance. Then it could be seen as an accidental death.

Tense episode, so what happens to Michael? I doubt he gets killed off so who is going to come to his rescue? There can only be one top dog, who will win out Jamie or Michael? I think Jamie lacks the composure and Michael was very clever to get to the amigos first

I think it may have been too noisy he surely would have splashed about and struggled a bit

I think Jamie lacks the composure and Michael was very clever to get to the amigos first

Jamie doesn't want to work with the Amigos

They want it to link up with Michael's girlfriend and her past.

Me and DH settled down to binge it last weekend. I stupidly gave him the remote and we watched the first episode only it wasn’t. It was episode 8🤦‍♀️.he just seen the name and clicked play😂 Sat watching wondering who the hell they all were and how they were connected. Honestly didn’t ruin it that much but just meant we knew how it ended. Really enjoyed it. Hope there’s a series 2

I did that on Rain Dogs a few years ago. Hadn’t a bloody clue what was going on!

I did then start it from the beginning but was gutted as I was really looking forward to it watching it (properly!) It was like reading the last few pages of a book first.

So it's not only my husband who clicks randomly on buttons and you end up doing this as well as missing intros and endings of episodes 🙄