'This City Is Ours' Trailer Sets a U.K. Premiere

The BBC has officially set a premiere date for the high-profile awards-bait series This City Is Ours, one of the primary titles the British Broadcaster commissioned in early 2024 along with such other ambitious projects like a filmed version of the hit West End stage production Dear England and an adaptation of the novel The Ministry of Time (both still in development hell). Part of the reason these are taking so long to make is the ongoing funding issues, which in recent years have driven the BBC and its competitors to go the co-production route, creating shows with the financial backing of Netflix, Max, BritBox, PBS, etc. 

This City Is Ours was lucky; despite no co-producer, the show managed to get made anyway, thanks to it being a story set and filmed on location in Liverpool, which meant it qualified for grants from the Liverpool Film Office through the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s LCR Production Fund. (These regional grants, which were created to encourage production of BBC and ITV series on location outside of London have been a life saver for multiple shows stuckin limbo and are responsible for helping fund shows set in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.)

The result is that the BBC will actually manage to get This City Is Ours out as part of the 2025-2026 TV season as planned. The show will even arrive in time for the end of March smorgasbord of shows hoping to get some BAFTA and Emmy attention. The trailer suggests the show is primed to land multiple nominations too.

Here’s the series synopsis:

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.

Sean Bean (Shardlake) stars as Ronnie, the head of the Phalen family, with James Nelson Joyce (A Thousand Blows) co-starring as his right-hand man, Michael. Julie Graham (Time) features as Ronnie's wife Elaine, Jack McMullen (Hijack) as his son Jamie, and Hannah Onslow (This Is Going to Hurt) as Michael's new love, Diana. The cast also includes Laura Aikman (Archie), Kevin Harvey (Treason), Saoirse-Monica Jackson (Derry Girls), Stephen Walters (Slow Horses), Bobby Schofield (Rogue Heroes), and Darci Shaw (The Irregulars). The series also features Mike Noble (The Long Shadow) as Liverpool's legendary Banksey.

Stephen Butchard (The Last Kingdom) is the lead writer on the eight-episode series with Robbie O’Neill. Director Saul Dibb (The Sixth Commandment) helms all episodes with Simon Maloney producing. Butchard and Dibb executive produce with Andy Harries, Rebecca Hodgson, and Sian McWilliams for Left Bank Pictures and Jo McClellan for the BBC. 

This City Is Ours is set to premiere on BBC on Sunday, March 23, 2025, at 9 p.m. BT, and air in weekly installments. The series still lacks an American distributor. I am personally offended by that last fact.