Latest news with #Nelson-Joyce
BBC News
07-04-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
This City is Ours: James Nelson-Joyce on the 'Scouse Sopranos'
In This City Is Ours, Liverpool actor James Nelson-Joyce plays a leading gang member who is struggling to balance his criminal career and family life, against a backdrop of changing modern it's not hard to see why the new BBC drama has been dubbed by reviewers as the "Scouse Sopranos" - with reference to the acclaimed US mafia boss Tony and his equally conflicting plays the notorious Michael Kavanagh, who works for drug lord and lifelong friend Ronnie Phelan, played by Sean Bean. And the plot focuses on the power struggle between Michael and Ronnie's son Jamie - played by Nelson-Joyce's real life football friend and fellow Scouser Jack McMullen - as to who will take over the business when the top dog retires to Spain, via the though, Michael falls in love with Diana (Hannah Onslow). The couple are trying for a baby but due to his low sperm count need to try IVF to start a not an ideal environment for domestic bliss to blossom - or good for Michael's street cred - but it does provide the scene for the 36-year-old actor's "most amazing" TV experience to date. "It's about Michael allowing himself to be vulnerable," Nelson-Joyce tells BBC News."Because a lot of men put up this brave wall where it's like, I can't be seen to be that person," he adds. "It's took Diana to be that breath of fresh air in his life." He believes it is important to show on screen how "we are allowed to change"."Because Michael's identity throughout has been as Ronnie's right-hand man, so he's always been the one you don't mess with."Whereas for the first time in his life, he's allowing himself to be who he wants to be; this loving partner who's reliable, who's safe and who doesn't lie to his partner." The rising star, who has been mentioned as potential future James Bond, previously appeared opposite Sheffield actor Bean in another Merseyside crime drama, he has featured alongside another Liverpudlian, Stephen Graham, in Time, Little Boy Blue, and the recent historical drama A Thousand says his latest character's respect for his partner in crime, Ronnie, was a mirror of his real life working relationship with Bean, who he describes as "a gift" of a co-star and a "kind human being".Graham is "so supportive" of Nelson-Joyce's career too. The former's own headline-grabbing new show, Adolescence, also tackles toxic masculinity and its potentially deadly City is Ours' Bafta-winning director Saul Dibb (The Sixth Commandment) notes how Nelson-Joyce has played "hard men" roles before but has not been able to demonstrate "all of the other qualities" he possesses, until now. 'Superb crime thriller' The Telegraph has awarded the show five stars, calling it a "superb crime thriller of betrayals and shifting loyalties". Critic Anita Singh noted that it "doesn't quite live up to" the Sopranos "but it comes close".In a four-star review, the Independent said Nelson-Joyce's "conflicted gangster" and the show's "moral ambivalence" elevated it "above the average boilerplate crime drama".The Guardian's Lucy Mangan awarded three stars, however, suggesting "the fantastic performances don't do enough to lift this Scouse Sopranos."But the Sunday Times' Carol Midgley offered another four-star review, saying it "is as much about family dynamics and the human condition as it is about gangsters and violence". The show's creator and writer Stephen Butchard (The Last Kingdom) tells us he is "happy" with comparisons to the "brilliant" New Jersey-based crime show "because that really is about a family"."We haven't got as many cured meats," he jokes, of Mr Soprano's favourite reference point was Shakespeare, he explains, to "explore those huge human emotions of your ambition and greed and love and betrayal.""Once greed and secrets take hold, the fabric of any society, including a family, begins to fray," he engineer Butchard was keen to capture the "vibrancy" of his native Liverpool, which he describes as a "really handsome" and "friendly" modern world vistas of the city's skyline and glamorous waterfront are juxtaposed with life on its streets (along with shots of the gang's dealings in sunny Marbella and Malaga)."I didn't want to show a Liverpool that has been seen previously on the television," he says."Because this story could be told in any city around the world, but then it's only when you come to the characters that you can give them that Liverpool inflection, bite and hopefully humour, and reflect the mood of the city."He says he was was impressed with the "wonderful" Scouse accents perfected by the non-local members of the extended fictional crime family, including Onslow, Julie Graham and Laura Aikman, as well as Derry Girls star Saoirse-Monica Jackson. As for genuine Scouser Nelson-Joyce, just when he thought he was out, the producers may have pulled him back in for a second series."We want to do a season two" says the star."It would be mad if there wasn't" offers underline the overwhemingly positive responses they've received, particularly from viewers with purple bins."Because they're the people who know if we've got all the details right," says the London director, adding that Liverpudlians would "not hold back" in saying so if recounts how a train conductor told actor Michael Noble - who plays Michael's confidant/enforcer, Banksey - that they had "done they city proud".The reaction has been "really lovely" and "a bit crazy" adds Nelson-Joyce."It feels like the whole city loves it," he says. "I think people really bought the relationship between me and Hannah and really wanted us to work."His celebrity pal, ex-Liverpool footballer Jamie Carragher told him personally last week that he thought the show was "[expletive] brilliant".Tony Soprano could not have put it better City Is Ours airs on BBC One on Sundays at 21:00 BST. All eight episodes are available now on iPlayer.
BBC News
03-04-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
James Bond: Could James Nelson-Joyce become 'double oh Scouse'?
Liverpudlian actor James Nelson-Joyce said it would be a "privilege" to become the first "double oh scouse" after the odds of him becoming the next James Bond were has seen his star rise thanks to his role as crime boss Michael Kavanagh in BBC crime saga This City is Ours, which is set in his home Coral assessed the 36-year-old's chances of replacing Daniel Craig as the iconic British spy in the long-running movie franchise at only 6/ to BBC Radio Merseyside, the Orrell Park-born actor described himself as "just a lucky lad". "I mean... double oh scouse, I'm here for it," joked said seeing the buzz around This City is Ours was a real "pinch myself" on to talk about his career, he added: "I've been at this what, 15 or 16 years? "So to now be part of a BBC drama that's had such an impact like this? It's a bit surreal really."The Time and Little Boy Blue star said he welcomed the economic benefit - estimated at £9m by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority - brought to the region by This City is Ours production."We want more filming in the area, more filming in Liverpool," said Nelson-Joyce. "It's the third most filmed city in Britain [and] the second outside of London. "We want to push that and use it as much as we can because it generates so [many] opportunities, money and employment for the area." Nelson-Joyce was speaking to reporters at the opening of a new "centre for warmth" in Kirkdale on Wednesday. The £500,000 community centre aims to help people access support with heating bills, benefit assessments and funding assessments for children with additional needs. It has been set up on the site of Kirkdale St Lawrence Primary School. Nelson-Joyce said: "It's a big stress on people's lives - the worry of money has a massive impact. "To know that they've got somewhere to come where you feel like they're on your side, and they are on your side, it's so important for the community." Listen to the best of BBC Radio Merseyside on BBC Sounds and follow BBC Merseyside on Facebook, X, and Instagram, and watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer.
The Independent
23-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
This City Is Ours star James Nelson-Joyce: ‘I thought kids like me don't act'
When James Nelson-Joyce was in his first year of drama school, he was told that he'd better lose his accent because he wouldn't work much as a scouser. It's safe to say that he's since proved that assertion completely wrong by, well, working a lot as a scouser (and giving some indelible performances in the process). In a truly unsettling turn in Jimmy McGovern's 2021 drama Time, he played Johnno, the prison bully who tormented Sean Bean's character Mark Cobden; he was responsible for one of the show's most talked-about (read: harrowing) scenes, involving a bag of sugar, a kettle filled with boiling water and another inmate's face. He's also appeared in the Liverpool -set thriller The Responder, cropped up in Industry and played the bad guy in Stephen Merchant's comedy The Outlaws. Later this year, he'll star in the new season of Black Mirror. Few of these parts have been particularly breezy, to say the least; most are firmly situated on the wrong 'un end of the character spectrum. And Nelson-Joyce is so convincing in those roles that I'm half expecting some spiky version of one of them to come through the doors of the coffee shop where we meet, just around the corner from Liverpool's main shopping street. Off screen, though, he couldn't seem further from that persona. 'You know what, everyone comes up to me and says, 'you were horrible in that' or, 'I was scared to come over',' he laughs, shaking his head. The 35-year-old grew up in Walton, in the north of the city, and has recently arrived back after a stint in London promoting A Thousand Blows, the brutal, propulsive drama about East End bare knuckle boxers, written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight. It was his first proper period piece (and required some proper period sideburns). Stepping onto the hyper-realistic Victorian set made him feel 'like a kid in a candy shop, [thinking] 'I'm not supposed to be doing this!''. In the show, Nelson-Joyce plays Treacle, younger brother to ageing prize fighter Henry 'Sugar' Goodson, played by his offscreen friend and mentor Stephen Graham (he does a pretty good rendition of the actor, who's from nearby Kirkby, phoning him up to give him a quick rundown of the role). For this one, both Liverpudlians played cockneys – and faced off in some truly wrenching scenes, emotionally and physically. 'We trust each other, and that brotherly chemistry was there for free,' says Nelson-Joyce. 'Me and Stephen are both open books. But men in that age were very stoic, they didn't really talk about problems or issues. They still don't now, do they, really?' His next big project sees him back on home turf, taking the lead role in the BBC's sweeping new crime drama This City Is Ours alongside his Time co-star Bean ('working with Sean, honestly, it's a doddle'). Nelson-Joyce plays Michael, a drug dealer and protégé of organised crime boss Ronnie (Bean). The two have a twisted father-son dynamic, the older man a sort of 'surrogate father' to the younger, despite his having 'kind of groomed Michael' into a life of crime. As the series opens, Bean's character is looking to retire to his sprawling house on the Wirral, on the other side of the Mersey, and to hand over the business to Michael. But Ronnie's real son, Jamie (Jack McMullen), isn't happy with this succession plan, and the power struggle that ensues is a brutal one. And in counterpoint to all those machinations, we also see Michael trying to start a family with his girlfriend Diana (Hannah Onslow), with the couple going through fertility treatment. Nelson-Joyce is one of those actors who can slip from vulnerability to violence, and vice versa, with disconcerting speed; it's a role that certainly makes good use of that knack. The story held his attention from the off. 'I'm dyslexic, so when it comes to me getting scripts in, I usually have to read 10, 15 pages, put it down and come back to it, just because I lose concentration,' Nelson-Joyce says. 'I don't know if that's a bit of ADHD as well. But I genuinely read all three episodes [sent over] in the space of three and a half hours, four hours. It [was] a page-turner, and I remember thinking to myself, 'I'm not letting anyone else play this character'.' Although, he admits, a touch of imposter syndrome still crept in, with a voice in his head telling him: 'They're gonna want someone really famous for this' or 'I haven't got that profile that a lot of actors have'. His first scene on location in Liverpool was filmed round the corner from his old flat; another was near his school, and 'when we were doing stuff on the street, I'd have mates walking past, or family members. It was a bit weird, but I loved it'. It's a telegenic place – not for nothing is Liverpool the second most-filmed city in the UK, outside of London – but it looks especially good in this series. 'I just want to show the city off as much as I can,' he says, 'and, whenever I can, to use my accent in a project'. He sees Michael as someone who, 'if he was given the opportunities', would thrive on a more legitimate path. 'I think that's the case for a lot of people. We all need an opportunity. And I'm fortunate that I got mine.' Growing up, Nelson-Joyce describes himself as 'not the cleverest kid in school', a 'bit of a class clown'. He 'wanted to be a footballer, wasn't good enough' (he's a Liverpool fan; when his phone rings, it does so to the strains of Gerry and the Pacemakers) but he used to 'put accents on' while reading in his English class, to get his teacher's attention. She put him forward to do a speaking and listening exam and suggested that he pursue acting. 'And I thought, 'kids like me don't act.'' When he went to college – 'God, I was at that college for five years… I was a nuisance!' – he started watching the work of local actors like Graham and Pete Postlethwaite and realised: 'People from my walk of life do this.' His parents, he says, were 'made up' when he decided to take acting seriously and try out for drama school. 'As long as I wasn't up to no good… It was never like, 'you can't do that, you've got to get a proper job'. And anyone who knows me knows you can't say that to me anyway, because I'm stubborn.' But if it wasn't for a chance meeting with Graham more than a decade ago, Nelson-Joyce says, 'I don't know where I'd be'. They crossed paths not in a rehearsal room or on a set, but in a London branch of Nando's. Nelson-Joyce was fresh out of drama school and had 'just come out of an audition' – and when he saw Graham, 'the reason why I got into acting', having dinner with his wife (fellow actor Hannah Walters), he 'thought, 'you know what, f*** it, I'll go over and say hello''. He ended up chatting to them about his ambitions (and taking a selfie), before leaving the couple to their peri-peri. Later, 'Hannah comes over and she says, 'There's something about you. Here's my email. If you're ever in anything, or you're ever on the telly, just send me an email and we'll watch it.'' But when he ended up getting 'bit parts' in Casualty and Shameless, he was 'too embarrassed' to take Walters up on that: 'Oh I'm on telly tonight, with my two lines,' he jokes, imagining his email. A few years passed, and Nelson-Joyce was cast as a gang member in Little Boy Blue, the drama based on the murder of Rhys Jones, the 11-year-old boy caught in the crossfire while walking home from football practice in Liverpool in 2007. Graham had signed up to play the police officer tasked with bringing the killer to justice. The weight of this real-life story inevitably hung over the cast, so Nelson-Joyce was glad to see a familiar face at the first table read. 'I just felt these eyes burning in my head, and I look up and it's Stephen. And he just goes, 'are you that lad from Nando's? Boss that, lad!'' Graham was impressed with how Nelson-Joyce handled the role and recommended him to his agent. He doesn't hold back when it comes to praising the support that the older actor has provided since. 'He's put me in front of so many doors and helped me open them. OK, I've had to work, and I've worked hard, but [Graham] is a bit of a saving grace for working-class actors.' He cites the recent statistic that only eight per cent of people in television and film are from a working-class background. 'It's not good enough. And then you've got drama schools charging an arm and a leg even to audition. It's just harder. I think Stephen and Hannah realise that they have a platform and they can create opportunities.' He tries to follow their example now when he works with younger actors ('I sound like a w***** saying this,' he caveats) because 'I know how important it is to get that opportunity, even if it's just to ask for advice: to say, how do I get into this industry? What do I wear to an audition?' He recalls how, before an audition for Shameless, he was told by a teacher to 'go wearing smart clothes – for Shameless!' he says, eyebrows raised. When he arrived, he ended up talking to the casting director about Shakespeare, 'saying all the right things. And he let me waffle along for a couple of minutes, then he goes, 'you're lying! Just make yourself at home.'' It taught him, he says, that he didn't actually have to pretend to be some idealised version of a drama student in order to succeed. 'That's the thing. There's only ever one of you. There's such pressure to be like, 'I have to be an actor '. It's all b*****ks. Be yourself.'
New York Times
21-02-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
In Stephen Graham's World, Nice Guys Finish First
In 2012, the actor Stephen Graham and his wife were having a quiet dinner at a chain chicken joint in London when a young man approached the table. The man, James Nelson-Joyce, told Graham that he had just left drama school and wanted to be an actor, too. Many would have sent the 20-something away with some polite encouragement, but Graham asked for Nelson-Joyce's email, and kept in touch, offering him regular advice and eventually recommending the younger actor to his agent. More than a decade later, Graham and Nelson-Joyce are playing brothers in 'A Thousand Blows,' a rip-roaring new Hulu drama set in the grimy East End of London in the 1880s. Graham's character, a bare-knuckle boxer known as the East End Gladiator, is of a type with the intimidating bruisers that he built his career playing, including a skinhead English nationalist in Shane Meadows's 'This Is England' and Al Capone in HBO's 'Boardwalk Empire.'. But over cups of tea on a recent gray afternoon in London, Graham, now 51, choked up while recounting his history with Nelson-Joyce. It means a lot, he said, laughing at the tears in his eyes, to be able to pass 'the baton on' to younger actors. It also reflects Graham's ethos that 'you're never above anyone, and you're never below anyone.' This egalitarian approach also applies when Graham works with some of Hollywood's biggest names. In an email, Leonardo DiCaprio recalled that on the set of Martin Scorsese's 'Gangs of New York' more than 20 years ago, Graham's 'fearless unpredictability kept everyone on their toes. But more than that, he brought truth to every scene.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
