Julie Graham Talks The BBC’s This City Is Ours

Keeping The Family Together

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

You have played so many different characters on TV and film in a career spanning four decades. What stood out about Elaine Phelan in this drama?

It is a crime drama like nothing else on TV. I know the cast all agree on that, too. It’s a drama series with mileage and longevity. There are eight episodes, and I would bite their hands off to make more. We all felt like that, and we still do.

When I read the initial scripts, I realised just how well Stephen Butchard writes for women, and Elaine is a very strong, self-assured character who has her own ambitions. She knows where the bodies are buried, so to speak.

I feel lucky that I was considered for the part in the first place and now that we have seen what has emerged, audiences are in for a real surprise. We couldn’t wait for the final scripts to arrive, we were all dying to know what happened next.

Elaine is the high-powered wife of the gangland boss Ronnie (Sean Bean), and mum to loose cannon son Jamie (Jack McMullen). Is she the glue that keeps the Phelans together?

Elaine is a wife and mother and that is what drives her before anything else. She is the heart of the Phelans. Family is everything to her and it comes before business and that is non-negotiable.

Elaine is well respected and does not suffer fools, and she can and does call the shots when she has to. She has enough on her plate with husband Ronnie thinking of retiring, taking a back seat, and her son Jamie, meanwhile, is sucking the life out of the family with his ambitions to take over the mantle from his dad.

The question is, can he do it? The stakes are very high. Or will Ronnie’s best friend Michael (James Nelson-Joyce) be better? There is a lot of wrangling.

Did the scouse accent come naturally to you?

It’s a place with strong working-class traditions, just like Glasgow, Belfast and Newcastle. The accents are passed on through each generation. These accents reflect strong identities.

I am very fond of Liverpool, so much so that I have worked in the city six times now. I know that you get a real welcome in Liverpool, and if the locals can help you then they go out of their way. It is always a joy to film there, and of course the drama is called This City is Ours – a very Liverpudlian trait.

I love the architecture there, too. We filmed in a little church in Toxteth called St Philip Neri with so much history, a hidden gem, and the city is full of them.

The Phelans have a nice lifestyle, don’t they?

The Phelans live in a beautiful house, as you would expect, in the Wirral. There you see what wealth Ronnie has. We also had five weeks filming in an opulent villa in Spain. You see the life they don’t want to lose.

It was such a wonderful cast and crew that, in Spain especially, I’d forgotten we were working. We had an absolute ball, you had to pinch yourself that you were not on holiday.

Just as you have the metropolis of Liverpool, you then have the contrasting picturesque scenery and climate of Spain.

You say the casting could not have been better. Was it a dream team?

Sean Bean is a big star and such a lovely, quiet man, too. He had time for everyone, and I know how much he rates this drama.

The cast is made up of young stars and older names. It’s a perfect balance because you have different ages and backgrounds who clicked from the beginning. You will know a lot of faces from stage, TV and film and we all gelled from day one.

Filming in Spain (the first scenes to be filmed) was the real icebreaker, it was a lovely way to get to know each other and our characters. It was the most wonderful bonding experience to be honest. And we danced a lot. I know the series will reflect that chemistry.

Do you think This City is Ours is one of those dramas that you will want to stay with from episode one?

I have been impressed at how everyone has a description for it. Someone said it’s ’a roller coaster ride’ and I like that. Someone else said it’s a ‘Scouse Sopranos.’

It becomes quite addictive, and if you watch episode one you will want to see it through to episode eight. You will soon become addicted to these characters, there are no weak links.