Entertainment reporter
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 masculinity.
So it’s not hard to see why the new drama has been dubbed by reviewers as the “Scouse Sopranos” – with reference to the acclaimed US mafia boss Tony and his equally conflicting set-up.
Nelson-Joyce 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 Wirral.
Inconveniently 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 family.
It’s 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 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, Time.
And he has featured alongside another Liverpudlian, Stephen Graham, in Time, Little Boy Blue, and the recent historical drama A Thousand Blows.
He 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 effects.
This 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 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 food.
Another 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 adds.
Former engineer Butchard was keen to capture the “vibrancy” of his native Liverpool, which he describes as a “really handsome” and “friendly” modern world city.
Beautiful 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 Dibb.
Both 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 not.
He 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 himself.
This City Is Ours airs on One on Sundays at 21:00 BST. All eight episodes are available now on iPlayer.
