Michelle Dockery Will Lead The Cast of Steven Knight's 'This Town'

Although Steven Knight's best-known television series—the period gangland drama Peaky Blinders—wrapped up its run earlier this year, the writer and showrunner is certainly not taking any time off in the wake of its end. His World War II drama Rogue Heroes is currently airing on EPIX, his new adaptation of Great Expectations is slated to arrive on FX this holiday season, and he's working on a Disney+ period drama about illegal boxing rings in nineteenth-century Victorian London. Plus, there's reportedly a Peaky movie in the works, and possibly a stage show. That's more than enough for one man to be getting on with, right? Not for the incredibly prolific Knight, apparently!

The cast has just been announced for his latest project, a major (and reportedly deeply personal) drama called This Town that Knight will write and direct. The six-part series follows the story of an extended family and four young people who are drawn into the world of ska and two-tone music, which exploded from the grassroots of Coventry and Birmingham in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, uniting black, white, and Asian youths.

Described as a mix of both a high-octane thriller and a family saga, This Town opens in 1981 during a time of huge social tensions and general public unrest. Against this backdrop, a group of young people are fighting to choose their own paths in life, and each is in need of the second chance that music offers.