Latest news with #JamesNelsonJoyce
BBC News
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
'This time it's different'
Watch James Nelson-Joyce - star of hit BBC Series This City is Ours - explain why this season's Premier League winning campaign against a backdrop of change is one Liverpool fans will never forget.
Daily Mail
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Acclaimed BBC crime thriller returning to screens for new series after topping charts as most-watched drama of the year
The BBC has confirmed that their gripping new series The City Is Ours will be renewed for a second season. Widely acclaimed by both critics and audiences alike, the gritty crime thriller's opening episode has garnered 6.6 million viewers to date. More than 3 million viewers were already streaming the show in advance of its finale last night. The series boasts the position of the most-watched drama launch of the year, so it's no surprise the Beeb want to cash in on the popularity. The 8-parter follows the story of Michael Kavanagh (James Nelson Joyce), the partner of notorious drug kingpin, Ronnie Phelan (Sean Bean). Beginning to contemplate the possibility of a future and a new family with his girlfriend, Diana, (Hannah Onslow), Michael reevaluates his life choices. However, when Ronnie plans to retire, tensions are sparked between Michael and Ronnie's ambitious son, Jamie Phelan, over which of them will inherit his crime empire. Featuring scenes such as the Catholic 'wigwam' cathedral, where a gangster prays for guidance before betraying his fellow crooks, to the ships on the Mersey, the series is set and shot in Liverpool, with an unwavering affection for the city. Others in the cast include Derry Girls' Saoirse-Monica Jackson and Laura Aikman, last seen being jilted at the altar by Smithy in Gavin & Stacey - who we expect to see returning for series two. After the controversy of his character's savage murder in episode 2, which fans deemed 'mad', it has been confirmed that Sean Bean will make a reappearance in the second season. The news comes after some viewers took issue with his quick departure from the show, writing 'Perhaps he can only manage 30 minutes of acting per programme. One of the biggest disappointments ever was him being written out of Game of Thrones so early.' Speculation is already swirling that the new season will feature a flashback episode delving deeper into Ronnie's past. We have all been blown away by the incredibly positive response to This City is Ours,' said show creator Stephen Butchard. 'I can't thank the audience enough for their time and emotional investment.' 'This City is Ours was one of our team's first commissions when I joined the BBC,' added Lindsay Salt, director of BBC Drama. 'I could not be happier with how Stephen, Saul and the Left Bank team have brought it to the screen so classily.' The show has garnered a whopping 92% rating from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, with one fan on X calling last night's finale 'Shakespearean level drama'. But Salt suggests that the drama is only just beginning: 'I'm delightedthat we now get to build on this fantastic first run and show that things are only just getting started for this very special series'. All episodes of This City Is Ours are available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Huge news for fans of This City is Ours as final episode of the series airs TONIGHT
Good news for This City is Ours fans - it will be back for a second series. Tonight saw the tense conclusion to the final episode and today the BBC confirmed the crime drama will be back. The eight-part first series, which launched in full on BBC iPlayer in March has been praised by both critics and viewers alike and even sparked a viral line-dancing frenzy to the Phelan family's signature song House of Bamboo. Episode one of This City is Ours has been watched by over 6.6 million people so far, more than tripling its initial overnight figure of 1.9 million. READ MORE: This City is Ours actors on the new BBC gripping drama 'It is a drama that I can honestly say I have never seen on television before' 'It has been called the 'Scouse Sopranos' which is great compliment' Viewers continue to discover the series on BBC iPlayer, where it has been the BBC's most watched new drama launch of the year so far, and almost 3 million people have streamed the series finale ahead of its BBC One transmission tonight. (Image: Image: BBC/Left Bank Pictures/James Stack) Created and written by Stephen Butchard and made by Left Bank Pictures, This City is Ours is filmed in Liverpool and tells the story of Michael (James Nelson-Joyce) and Diana's (Hannah Onslow) love affair, set against the disintegration of Michael's crime gang. For years, together with his friend Ronnie (Sean Bean), Michael has successfully been bringing cocaine into the City and beyond, using his close links with the Marbella underworld; but when a shipment goes missing, he knows their kingdom is under attack. This City explores what happens when Ronnie's son Jamie (Jack McMullen) decides he wants to inherit the kingdom over Michael, and the subsequent battle for control. Series one also stars Laura Aikman, Julie Graham, Kevin Harvey, Saoirse-Monica Jackson, Mike Noble, Bobby Schofield, Darci Shaw, and Stephen Walters. Stephen Butchard, This City is Ours creator, lead writer and executive producer says: 'We have all been blown away by the incredibly positive response to This City is Ours, I can't thank the audience enough for their time and emotional investment. My heartfelt thanks also to Lindsay Salt and her wonderful team at BBC Drama for their unflinching support and continued belief in the show, our story and our characters - and not least for this opportunity to do it all over again! See you soon!' (Image: Image: BBC/Left Bank Pictures/James Stack) Sian McWilliams, Creative Director at Left Bank Pictures and executive producer on This City is Ours says: 'We are so delighted to be diving back into Stephen Butchard's brilliant underworld of Liverpool crime with our wonderful collaborators at the BBC. It's been a joy to watch audiences fall in love with these fantastically complex characters. After the tumultuous events of the season one finale, the gang rivalries and betrayals have escalated to new levels, new ones have just begun, and there is a lot of unfinished business!' (Image: BBC) Lindsay Salt, Director of BBC Drama says: 'This City is Ours was one of our team's first commissions when I joined the BBC, and I could not be happier with how Stephen, Saul and the Left Bank team have brought it to the screen so classily. The response from viewers has been a joy to see, with millions discovering its thrilling, character-driven drama for themselves to become gripped by the raging war of the Phelans. I'm delighted that we now get to build on this fantastic first run and show that things are only just getting started for this very special series." This City is Ours series two (8x60) will be produced by Left Bank Pictures for BBC iPlayer and BBC One. It was commissioned for the BBC by Lindsay Salt, Director of BBC Drama. It will be written by Stephen Butchard, and the executive producers are Andy Harries, Rebecca Hodgson and Sian McWilliams for Left Bank Pictures, Stephen Butchard, and Jo McClellan and Sami El Hadi for the BBC. Sony Pictures Television will distribute the series internationally. This City is Ours series one is available to stream in full on BBC iPlayer. Sony Pictures Television are distributing the series internationally. The BBC say that further information about series two will be announced in due course.
The Guardian
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘Stephen Graham recognised me from Nando's': how James Nelson-Joyce became TV's hottest rising star
James Nelson-Joyce is still buzzing. Two days ago, he not only watched his beloved Liverpool FC clinch the Premier League title but led a celebratory dance with his heroes. 'I ended up in the Anfield boardroom after the match, then partied with the team,' he grins. 'The DJ clocked that I was there, played Andy Williams' House of Bamboo and it all went right off.' The 36-year-old Merseysider is now starring in BBC gangland thriller This City Is Ours, in which a local crime family perform a choreographed line-dance to the loungecore classic. 'Harvey Elliott and a few other players dragged me on to the dancefloor and made me do it with them,' he chuckles in disbelief. 'They all love the show, which is a huge compliment.' Nelson-Joyce is on something of a winning streak himself. As well as This City Is Ours – which reaches its finale this Sunday – he's a scene-stealer in the hit period boxing drama A Thousand Blows and the latest season of Black Mirror. His simmering screen presence and canny taste in projects have made him one of the hottest actors around – and it's partly thanks to a fateful meeting in Nando's. 'I'd just left drama school and saw Stephen Graham in Nando's with Hannah [Walters, his wife]. If it was anyone else, I'd never have gone over but Stephen was my idol. So I just said, 'Look, lovely to meet you. You're the reason I got into acting.' I told them to enjoy their dinner and sat back down. A bit later, Hannah came over and went: 'There's something about you. You remind me of Stephen when he was younger. Here's our email.'' Two years later, Nelson-Joyce landed a role in true-crime drama Little Boy Blue as teen gang member James Yates, who supplied the gun that killed 11-year-old Rhys Jones. Graham played Det Supt Dave Kelly. 'At the table reading, I felt these two eyes burning into the side of my head and it was Stephen. He whispered 'You're that lad from Nando's, yeah?' and gave me a thumbs up. It was the biggest pat on the back I could've got.' Graham has since become a friend and mentor, even hooking up Nelson-Joyce with his agent. 'He told me, 'I've only ever done this once before and that was for Jodie [Comer]. I was like, 'Bloody hell!' It's since I met Stephen and Hannah that everything good has come into my life. I'm so grateful but he didn't just do it for me. He's helped a whole generation of working-class actors.' Nelson-Joyce and Graham have shared the screen three times. After Little Boy Blue came Jimmy McGovern's prison drama Time and Steven Knight's A Thousand Blows, in which they portray pugilistic siblings Treacle and Sugar Goodson. 'It's such a treat to play brothers,' smiles Nelson-Joyce. 'He's still my idol, as much as he's one of my closest friends.' Nelson-Joyce's preparation for the period piece got off to a shaky start. 'I'm a history nerd and learned how malnourished everyone was in the 1880s, so I slimmed down for the part. I turned up for the first day of fight training and there was Stephen looking like a mini Mike Tyson and Malachi [Kirby] ripped to shreds. I thought 'I've gone about this all wrong. Better get on the protein quick.'' He and Graham were last seen beating each other senseless in a brutal pub brawl. 'That fight took a full day's filming. Because me and Stephen are so close, we pushed the boundaries with the stunts. We did certain things that we shouldn't have but it looked good on camera. At one point, Ashley Walters [who was directing] jumped out of his seat to check we were OK. Me and Stephen just looked at each other and smiled. I went to Glastonbury that night and all weekend, I was still finding bits of blood in my hair.' Graham often uses a characters' shoes and walk as a way into inhabiting them. Nelson-Joyce's method is musical: 'I start by building a playlist, then go out walking, listening to it. But I've robbed a little something off Stephen as well. He always gets an aftershave for each character he plays. Now I do that too. In This City Is Ours, I wear Prada – an expensive fragrance for a successful guy. Johnno in Time wore Joop! Little things like that help add layers.' That Prada-scented creation is Michael Kavanagh, trusted right-hand man of crime boss Ronnie Phelan (Sean Bean). As Ronnie eyes retirement, a bloody battle erupts over who will inherit his empire: the quietly ambitious Michael or Ronnie's hot-headed son Jamie (Jack McMullen). 'It's like Shakespeare or Succession. Who's next in line? Who will you side with?' Further complications come from the fact that Michael is head-over-heels in love with girlfriend Diana (Hannah Onslow). The couple are trying to conceive via IVF. Fatherhood could put an early end to his criminal career. 'It was the complexity of Michael that appealed to me,' says Nelson-Joyce. 'He's trying to spin plates and balance these two worlds but he becomes more torn and conflicted. He does bad things but his relationship with Diana humanises him and shows his softer side. When I read the script, I knew I had to play him. I fought for this role for eight months. It's the scouse way. We don't give up. You get so many knockbacks in acting but our attitude is: 'I'll fucking prove you wrong!'' The show has been dubbed 'the scouse Sopranos'. As Nelson-Joyce says: 'It's an honour even to be mentioned in the same breath as one of the greatest shows ever made.' The eight-part series makes his home city look epic and cinematic. 'Everyone I've spoken to is proud of it. People stop me in the street all the time, which is lovely. We shot one scene in a restaurant and since the episode aired, it's been booked out. You can't get a table for the next four months. That's the beauty of Liverpool. We back our own. Between the show and the footie, there's a real buzz around town at the minute.' Sean Bean is renowned for dying on screen, with 'death reels' of his various demises online. Spoiler warning, but Nelson-Joyce becomes the latest in a long line of actors to kill him. 'I know,' he sighs. 'I bullied him in Time and here I kill him, which is ironic because I love Sean. He pulled me aside early in filming and said 'You're leading a show for the first time. It's a lot of pressure and you'll probably feel it at some point. When you do, just call me.' I'd describe Sean as a working-class gentleman.' On the Bafta-winning Time, Nelson-Joyce got to work with another of his heroes: screenwriter Jimmy McGovern, who he once sent fanmail. 'Growing up, I didn't know any actors or see it as a career option. But I related to Jimmy's work, especially The Street, so I wrote him an email, telling him he was my favourite writer. Years later, when I met him on-set, it was the only time I've ever been starstruck. My voice went all high-pitched and I darted away, embarrassed.' McGovern, Graham and Bean are kindred spirits in their championing of working-class talent. Nelson-Joyce is a prime example. 'It's about opportunities,' he says. 'To get into drama school, you have to travel down to London and pay to audition. That becomes a barrier. When subjects like drama and music are pulled off the secondary school syllabus, it's even worse. If our industry lacks diverse voices, we all miss out. Working-class shows – and I don't mean poverty porn, I mean authentic stories with heart and soul – can become global hits. Look at Peaky Blinders. Look at the impact of Adolescence. Drama is important. It can change things.' Nelson-Joyce had an additional barrier to overcome. He left school without any qualifications, not realising he was dyslexic. It was his English teacher Miss Griffiths – on whom he admits harbouring a crush – who spotted his performing potential (Nelson-Joyce was the class joker and mimic) and encouraged him to study acting at City of Liverpool college. 'It wasn't until I got to drama school that I got diagnosed,' he recalls. 'I was performing a speech for a play and the director noticed that I wasn't picking up the punctuation. The school put me forward for assessment, which found that I was severely dyslexic.' It hasn't held him back in his burgeoning career. 'You learn ways around it. I find it easier to read off paper, rather than online. Coloured paper helps. I highlight the text, annotate it and break it down. It might take me a little longer but it's just something I have to crack on with.' In Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror, he appears in the episode Plaything as the detective who interrogates and eventually assaults a murder suspect, played by Peter Capaldi. 'It feels like I beat everyone up!' laughs Nelson-Joyce. 'I'm going to get filled in one day, just shopping in town.' Does he fear being typecast as a bad boy? 'I know how I appear, first and foremost. I've always had one of those faces where people think I'm looking for trouble. Secondly, they're interesting parts. I've played some nasty villains but my job as an actor is to understand them. I don't worry about typecasting because I'm doing a job I love. The time to worry is when you're not working. Anything else is champagne problems.' That distinctive face also meant he was cast as dancer Bez in a Happy Mondays biopic. The project was put on hold during the pandemic and is yet to return to production. 'Bez was horrified by being played by a scouser,' laughs Nelson-Joyce. 'We've met a few times and he's an absolutely lovely bloke.' Also on his to-do list is a drama about male suicide. 'It's an epidemic. The biggest killer of men under 45. I'd love to sit down with someone like Jack Thorne or Jimmy McGovern and create something looking into why.' First, though, comes the killer climax of This City Is Ours. 'Prepare to be on the edge of your seat,' he grins. 'It's a helluva ending. We don't know yet but I hope there'll be a second season. The show deserves it.' There would be uproar in the Anfield dressing room if it's denied. This City Is Ours concludes at 9pm Sunday on BBC One and is available as an iPlayer box set.
