This City Is Ours star takes centre stage in Liverpool

A digital billboard caught the eye of This City Is Ours star James Nelson-Joyce when he spotted his own onscreen character, Michael Kavanagh, lit up on Liverpool’s Edge Lane.

James, who played Michael Kavanagh in the first series of This City Is Ours, is among the stars of hit Liverpool dramas to feature in a new BBC city-wide campaign.

More than 100 billboards and digital screens are now on display across the city centre as part of the BBC’s nationwide Made Of Here campaign. In locations from Lime Street Station to Liverpool ONE shopping centre, the eye-catching artwork features characters from This City Is Ours, Time series two and The Responder, which were all filmed in Liverpool.

James said: “It’s fantastic to see characters from This City is Ours, including my own, Michael Kavanagh, on screens in my hometown. Everyone involved in making the show is made up about how well it’s gone down with viewers, particularly across Merseyside.

“It means the world to me to be part of something that’s made and set in my city. When you see your hometown on screen it makes you feel proud and importantly, it shows young people that there are opportunities to work in TV where they live.”

Liverpool is the first regional location to be selected to be spotlit by the campaign, following the national launch of Made Of Here earlier this month. Actors from This City Is Ours, Time series two and The Responder, including Sean Bean, Hannah Onslow, Julie Graham, Jodie Whittaker, Martin Freeman and Adelayo Adedayo take starring roles on the artwork.

Meanwhile, This City is Ours is to return to BBC iPlayer and BBC One for a second series after attracting an average 5.8 million viewers for the first series.

Episode one has been watched by more than 7.8 million people to date, more than tripling its initial overnight figure of 1.9 million. Viewers continue to discover the eight-part series on BBC iPlayer, where it has been the BBC’s most watched new drama launch of the year so far and almost three million people streamed the series finale ahead of its BBC One transmission.

This City is Ours is the story of Michael, a man who for all of his adult life has been involved in organised crime, working for his friend and the gang leader Ronnie (Sean Bean). When Ronnie begins to hint at retirement, Michael too begins to imagine another life. Because, for the first time in his life, Michael is in love. For the first time in his life, he sees beyond the day-to-day, he sees a future: something to win and something to lose – Diana (Hannah Onslow).

This City is Ours was created by Stephen Butchard, who serves as lead writer, with Robbie O’Neill writing further episodes.

Made Of Here is designed to celebrate the BBC’s commitment to supporting homegrown storytelling.

At the heart of the campaign is a compelling new film; the BBC’s love letter to the hometowns and cities across the UK that have inspired some of its most iconic TV shows and characters. Alongside the national film, the campaign – which has been produced in house at the BBC by BBC Creative – will be brought to life in towns and cities across the UK, spotlighting the local areas that have inspired the BBC to tell these stories.

• Watch The City is Ours on BBC iPlayer
• Read more: BBC leads the way in portrayal of UK stories this autumn

 MRT

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