This city is HERS

Ahead of the return of acclaimed Liverpool-set crime drama This City Is Ours for its much-anticipated second series, Hannah Onslow discusses stepping back into the role of Diana, the extraordinary reaction to the show, filming on Merseyside, working with James Nelson-Joyce and Money Heist star Álvaro Morte, and what lies ahead for her character as the stakes rise once again

Words | Lawrence Saunders

Before we get into series two, what have you been up to since filming wrapped?

I’m in rehearsals at the minute for a play at the National Theatre in London called Some Woman. We’re about five weeks in now, so yeah, it’s going, it’s going [laughs]. We finished filming This City Is Ours in, I think, May. We started rehearsals for the play in August, so I had time to have a holiday and relax. I think we ended up filming for seven months, and the show is never just two people having a coffee and chatting rubbish. It’s always life or death. It’s intense!

Going back to the first series, did you have any sense while you were filming it of how audiences might respond?

We had a great time shooting it, so you’re hopeful that it’s received well, but you just never know. It had the recipe for success in a lot of ways. The scripts were great, the cast was great, the story was great, it had great producers and the whole crew were brilliant, so it had everything. But you just don’t know if it’s going to connect with people.

It feels like there was a lot of word of mouth as well. When I hear people talking about it, it’s like they’d heard someone from work speaking about it and that’s what got them onto it. It really feels like the people who watched it loved it and binged it, which is great.

With the show being so rooted in Liverpool, did you feel an extra sense of responsibility taking on such a big role when you’re not from the city yourself?

Whenever you’re doing a job where you’re, quote-unquote, representing a place or doing an accent – whatever place that is – there is a responsibility. It’s tricky for Diana because she was born in Liverpool, but had to move when everything happened with her mum and dad because she was so young and it was in the papers and all of that.

So it was about finding her accent within someone who had lived in Liverpool but had maybe gone away. It was also a really clever way of keeping her alienated from the group and keeping her separate. It’s a subtle thing.

But it was absolutely a responsibility and you don’t want people to feel misrepresented in any way. Everyone in it who isn’t Scouse loves Liverpool, loves the accent and connects with their character. So it’s definitely a responsibility and, of course, it’s a worry.

All you can do is your best. The way people have responded in Liverpool has been so wonderful. After the first series, we were like, ‘Oh, okay, they’re fine with us now!’

Was winning over people in Liverpool especially important to you all?

Oh my God, yeah. It was kind of the most important thing that people in Liverpool loved it, and I feel like they’ve really taken the show into their hearts.

When we were shooting the second season, it was a very different experience because obviously people had seen the show. But it’s always so nice when people come up and talk about it and they just love it. Also, Scousers are the friendliest people in the world, so it was just nice to chat!

 

 

Had you realised before coming back just how big the reaction had been in Liverpool?

When the show first came out, some of the other cast members who live in Liverpool were like, ‘They have gone mad for it up here’. But I hadn’t been back to Liverpool until we started filming again, so I didn’t quite realise.

Then when we came back for series two, I was just so happy that Scousers loved it because if they didn’t, they’d bloody tell you!

Absolutely, we would! I know you learnt some of your lines on Crosby Beach during the first series. Did you make it back there this time?

Well, this time we filmed from October through to May, so it was a bit colder and the weather wasn’t great. I definitely wasn’t going to Crosby Beach as much! Being recognised more did make things a little trickier, though, because I didn’t want to sit in a coffee shop with the scripts in case someone sneaked over and had a look!

But I feel like people don’t want to spoil it anyway, because that’s the whole thing with the show. The suspense is the best bit – you never quite know what’s going to happen. Even when we’re shooting, we’ll say to the writer, ‘Oh, I think this is going to happen’, and he always surprises us, so we never really know where it’s going.

Being recognised did make it a little bit more difficult to go out and about this time, but not too much. We’re not the bloody Beatles!

At the end of the first series, Diana and Michael seem to be heading off to start a new life together, but having seen the first two episodes of series two, it’s clear things don’t stay that simple for long. Without giving too much away, one thing that struck me is how Diana starts to take more control of what’s happening around her. Was that an interesting shift for you to explore?

Oh yeah, I think so. The people who had the control in the first series definitely have that challenged in the second. As certain things happen, especially for Michael, he realises that he can’t control everything and he’s not able to stick a lid on things. Diana feels like she has to take matters into her own hands, which any woman would.

It was great to see that side of her as well, and I think there’s a lot more of that to come in the series for all the women in it. The first series was such a whirlwind [for the characters]. I think the whole thing took place over less than three weeks or something like that, so it’s a really quick succession of things. This obviously kicks off six days later and I think everyone has matured slightly – or not, in some cases!

But Diana has definitely learnt some things and there’s definitely a shift in her. Over the course of the series, an even bigger shift emerges, and that for me was really exciting and also felt truthful.

Towards the end of the first series, Diana reveals what happened with her mother and father. Does the guilt she carries from that, and the sacrifice her mother made for her, continue to shape her in series two?

Oh, I think so. That never leaves a person. In the first series, no one else knew what had happened to her. It was only her and her mum who knew, and now Michael knows. They’re bonded even more because they’re the only two people who can really understand what that feels like, as kind of f ****d up as that is. I think it definitely lingers and it makes her who she is. She’s someone who has had to sit on a lot in her life and has also been controlled by men her whole life.

So it didn’t surprise me that she would fall in love with someone like Michael, who is seemingly so protective and would die for her, because I don’t think she had that protection growing up. But I think, as it goes on, we see her find that inner lioness in herself. Her past with her mum definitely comes into season two. She can never really run away from it. I think in some ways she has tried to run away from it, but you just can’t. It’s too big.

Michael is obviously a huge part of Diana’s story. Having now worked with James [Nelson-Joyce] across two series, how has your relationship as actors developed?

It’s so funny because when James and I had our chemistry read for the first series, that was the first time we’d met each other. It was kind of instant in a way, even though obviously we didn’t know each other.

Now he’s a good friend, and I think that naturally brings us closer. We love Michael and Diana and we love their relationship. It’s such an integral part of the show that if people didn’t buy it, it all kind of falls apart. Their relationship is very deep. She sees something tender and gentle in him, which completely contradicts so much of what you see from him. He’s more than his job. She actually sees someone very beautiful, and I don’t think he even sees himself as that in a way.

For me and James personally, we’ve just wanted to keep it as honest as we can. We love each other off set and we’ve become really close friends. I love acting with him. He’s amazing and I always look forward to having a scene with him. We’ve really got each other. We look after each other.

 

 

There are some new characters joining the show for series two. Shaun Evans plays Ozzie Thompson, an old-school gangster from Ronnie’s era, while Money Heist star Álvaro Morte joins as Felipe Guzman, Ricardo’s younger brother. You share some pretty intense scenes with Álvaro early on – what was he like to work with?

He was amazing to work with. I knew he was famous, but when we were in Spain, I remember going into a corner shop and there were bobbleheads of him for sale. He’s mega famous! It was a real career highlight for me working with him. He’s absolutely extraordinary. I think he elevated the whole thing, to be honest. He brought something so different and interesting and nuanced.

He had so many ideas and he was so supportive of me as an actress. We really wanted to explore their dynamic. These two people understand each other on a weird level, even though they’ve got nothing in common. There’s this weird connection between them.

That really comes across. There are moments where Felipe and Diana almost seem to understand each other without speaking. What do you think creates that connection between them?

That’s kind of what separates Diana from everyone else in the show. She’s honest and she can’t help it. That’s probably why she wouldn’t work in that world, but it’s also another reason why Michael loves her. There is something about Felipe where he can see underneath it. She can’t lie to him. There is no way she can lie to him because he will see it, and I think that made for a very interesting dynamic.

Also, the stakes are so high. Felipe’s not uber-violent. He doesn’t throw his weight around. It’s a very quiet, compelling, kind of chilling performance [from Álvaro], and that’s definitely how it felt on set. He’s nothing like his character in real life, thank God! He’s the nicest guy in the world.

We would go out for dinner in Liverpool and he loved the city. He’d never been before, and when he was leaving, I took him for oysters at NORD, which was lovely. He also had his birthday while we were there and we went to Buyers Club. It was the only place we could get a massive table. He loved Liverpool. He had a great time.

It sounds like you all got on really well off set. What’s the whole cast like together?

We’re mega close. A lot of us are away from home. When we were shooting season one – it was 2024, which is so weird to think about now – we all started filming in Spain. All we really had was each other to hang out with, and we properly connected. I feel like we’re a nice mixture of people.

Julie Harkin and Nathan Toth, who are the casting directors, don’t really hire any d**kheads! Everyone was really lovely and we’re quite a sweet group, I think.

It’s also weird because we are a bit of a firm. We’re a big group and we’re really proud of the show. Everyone loves the show. Everyone bit their hand off when they asked us to come back.

This City Is Ours returns to BBC iPlayer and BBC One on Sunday 25 October

Main image © BBC/Leftbank Pictures/James Stack