Jack McMullen Talks The BBC’s This City Is Ours

Violent Family Rivalry

This City Is Ours is a new BBC drama set in Liverpool and here’s one of its stars Jack McMullen talking about it…

What was it about the scripts that stood out for you?

I’ve been an admirer of Stephen’s work for a long time. He’s really good at setting up relationships and he creates gripping, punchy storylines that are expertly woven. He is a brilliant storyteller. There’s a real Shakespearean theme throughout the series as we follow these stories of love and family as they play out in such a brutal, violent world. The stakes are high throughout, and it makes for a really compelling watch.

When the scripts arrived, it was exciting. With all good scripts – especially character-driven ones – you need to buy into those characters and invest in them. Every character is flawed and that’s what makes it interesting. Stephen keeps us guessing where our allegiances should lie.

Does it make you proud to see Liverpool being used yet again as a major location in a big BBC drama series?

People love to see cameras on the streets and in communities where they live. They come up and ask you questions like ‘What’s it all about? Who is in it?’ It feels like they want to support it. When we were filming in Liverpool people were curious and it caused a bit of a buzz. I was the same when I was growing up here, I would hear something was filming here and I’d want to know all about it.

You say there was one major Hollywood star you saw in Liverpool that made you want to take up acting?

I remember coming home from school one day and there was a big crowd outside the chemists down the road. They were filming the UK scenes for the action comedy, The 51st State, in and around Liverpool. I went down to see what was happening and I saw Samuel L Jackson stood in our chippy, it was surreal. Maybe subconsciously that helped me understand at a young age that film isn’t this abstract thing, these actors are just normal people.

Sean Bean has said that you and James Nelson-Joyce are multi-talented stars of the future. How does that feel?

That is high praise coming from him. That is typical of Sean – he’s so supportive, he’s one of us. I grew up watching his work but he’s a very humble man and a team player. People like Sean are the type of actors you want with you in a series of this scale. He is a phenomenal actor.

James is one of my closest friends and we’ve known each other for years. We met at a football game in London and worked at the same gym together. We were still cutting our teeth back then and would have never dreamed we’d end up doing a job like this together. I’m also really good friends with Bobby Schofield (Bonehead) and a few of the other cast, which was a real advantage. When you start a new project you are usually thrown together with strangers and have to bond quickly, so it really helped that there were relationships there already.

What three words would you say sum up the recurring themes of this new drama?

Loyalty. Betrayal. Ambition. We spent many months filming in Liverpool and Spain to bring the series alive, and I am over the moon with what we have all achieved. I hope audiences will be too.