Sean Bean interview

[patch]

Sean Bean on the ‘Scouse Sopranos’: ‘It’s a love story for now’
The actor plays a family man who happens to be a gang boss in the new Merseyside mafia drama This City Is Ours

The Liverpudlian actor James Nelson-Joyce is explaining why Sean Bean from Sheffield is an “honorary Scouser”. It seems to boil down to the fact that Bean, despite his talent and critical acclaim, remains normal, grounded and not puffed with self-importance like, let’s face it, some actors can be. (Pomposity, I can attest as one who lives in Liverpool, is a heinous crime here, punishable by relentless mockery.)

Nelson-Joyce says Bean has the same attitude that is “ingrained in us” of “not taking everything too seriously. He’ll kill awkward moments with a joke. He’s not flash. There’s no ego.”

The Scouse comment is pertinent because they are about to star in a sharp, fresh, dark and extremely bingeable Sunday night BBC series set in Liverpool. It is officially titled This City Is Ours, but is being called the “Scouse Sopranos”. That’s quite the mantle to carry, but I can see the parallels.

It is about an affluent northern drugs boss, Ronnie (Bean), who is balancing his family life in a lovely house with running a criminal gang and all the violence that goes with it. This is a man who does terrible things, but we see his human side too. He is contemplating retirement with his wife (played by Julie Graham), but a rival drugs operation seems to be moving onto his turf. Bean says it is one of the most enjoyable series he has worked on, calling it “profound, funny, shocking and sinister” — and interesting because it is told from the villains’ perspective, not that of the police.

“I think we all have conflicting natures to some degree,” Bean says. “Ronnie’s veers wildly from almost paranoid brutality to the comforting tunes of Matt Monro and Andy Williams quite naturally. I’m convinced it will become a classic piece of drama.” When I email to ask how a Yorkshireman feels about being called an honorary Scouser he is delighted. “I’m very chuffed,” he writes. “High praise indeed.”

Today, I’m watching the series being filmed in an upmarket restaurant in Liverpool city centre with its writer, Stephen Butchard (The Last Kingdom, Shardlake). He tells me he envisaged it primarily as a love story with the drugs and gangster stuff secondary. “In my head as well I had Macbeth,” he says. “It was that kind of struggle.”

There are, indeed, strong Shakespearean parallels with themes of vaulting ambition, pride and even spots of blood symbolising guilt. Imagine that dynamic, but set within the world of organised crime and with golf courses. It is directed by Saul Dibb, who directed The Salisbury Poisonings and The Sixth Commandment.

Bean knew immediately when he saw Butchard’s script for This City Is Ours that he wanted to play Ronnie. “I could picture him and this was by only page nine,” he says. Bean, if you ask me, is the master of the pregnant silence (as demonstrated in the brilliant Marriage). “I do like silences and pauses,” he says. Although he adds: “Someone once wrote that my many silences, where I said nothing, spoke volumes. They didn’t realise that those were moments where I was just trying hard to remember my lines.”

His character’s trusted second-in-command is Michael (Nelson-Joyce), who has benefited from the spoils of crime, but is conflicted because he’s in love with his girlfriend, played by Hannah Onslow (who is from Essex, but watched Desperate Scousewives to perfect her accent) and wants the normality of domesticity as they try for a baby.

The tension comes from these two worlds, domestic and criminal, colliding in a drama that dwells less on the seedy side of the drugs underworld and more on the glamorous side of fancy clothes, nice hair-dos, gorgeous Spanish holiday villas and aspirational houses on the Wirral. But with a dark shadow always hovering.

The other star of the series is the city of Liverpool. You may not realise when you enjoy drama series and films that you are often watching Liverpool. It’s the second most-filmed city in the UK after London. The Liverpool Film Office says 301 film and TV productions were shot there in 2023 and over the past five years there have been 1,564, which has been a huge boost to the local economy.

ITV’s new detective series Protection, starring Siobhan Finneran, was made in Liverpool, as was Netflix’s forthcoming House of Guinness, starring James Norton. Directors like it for the versatility of the landscape and the historic architecture. The Georgian streets often double for London while the gothic buildings have been used to depict Moscow, such as in Fast and Furious 6.

The River Mersey waterfront is frequently used to portray New York (but far more cheaply) and stood in as part of Gotham City in The Batman. There is countryside and a coastline all within easy reach and two cathedrals to choose from. It’s sometimes less hassle to film “authentic” London 200 miles north of it. Peaky Blinders was not filmed in Birmingham, as many may expect, but mostly in Liverpool — its streets, docklands and surrounding areas (Tommy Shelby’s mansion was Arley Hall in nearby Cheshire).

This City Is Ours marks the first time that Bean and Nelson-Joyce have acted together since Jimmy McGovern’s Time in 2021. In that prison drama Bean played a mild-mannered teacher jailed for killing someone while drink-driving and Nelson-Joyce his psychopathic tormenter in superb scenes that felt so real they were painful to watch. Their relationship here is very different — almost like father and son, but with Ronnie’s son Jamie (Jack McMullen) also wanting the keys to the kingdom when Ronnie retires to his villa. Let’s just say violence is never far away, even among friends.

Nelson-Joyce, 35, who grew up in working-class Walton and whose talent was spotted at school by his English teacher, says he has learnt from observing Bean. He grew up watching him on TV “so he’s someone that I’ve always known. He’s always been there, you know, like James Bond.” He says that just like his close friend Stephen Graham, with whom he recently appeared in A Thousand Blows, “there’s just an ease and a friendliness that they bring to the set”.

Some of the filming took place in Marbella and a friend of Nelson-Joyce’s was flying from Britain to visit. When Bean heard this he said — here Nelson-Joyce slips into a Yorkshire-accented impression — “Can he do us a favour? Will he bring us two tubs o’ Bisto gravy?”

“We would never sit there and talk about, you know, the industry this and the industry that,” he says. “We’d be talking about football. Or Sean would be saying how he’s missing life back home.”

Nelson-Joyce’s magnetic screen presence is increasingly in demand (he has also appeared in The Gold as Brian Reader, in Bird alongside Barry Keoghan and will soon appear in Black Mirror). So far, he has played mostly working-class characters and largely villains. Would he like the chance to play middle or upper-class characters, perhaps wearing a period frock coat? He would. He admits to a frustration that middle-class actors frequently get to “play down” a class, but working-class ones less frequently get to “play up” one.

It’s true. You don’t see many working-class Geordies or Scousers playing the lord of the manor or donning britches to play a gent in Bridgerton. Here Nelson-Joyce wants me to make it clear that he’s not whingeing, so I will. “I don’t begrudge middle-class or upper-class people getting a chance to play down. I’d just like to see more opportunities for working-class actors,” he says. “And I’m not going, ‘Oh, I’m better than you.’ I’m just saying, give me the opportunity to let me see if I am.”

He adds he is actually sensitive in real life (this “hardman” has two chihuahuas), so “it’s a compliment when people meet me out and about and expect to see this horrible person. It’s proof that I’m hopefully doing a decent job in playing characters [who are] sometimes so far removed from me.”

It’s true that drugs gangs are an overused subject in TV drama, but This City Is Ours isn’t all about that. It’s also about psychology, greed, power and love. “At the end of the day, it’s a love story, but [it’s] not your usual romance,” Bean says. “It’s a brand new love story for now.”

This City Is Ours is on BBC1 and iPlayer from Mar 23

https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/sean-bean-game-of-thrones-this-city-is-ours-nbnm3nlk9

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Interview with Sean Bean (Ronnie Phelan)

What was the experience of filming This City is Ours like for you?

It was one of the most enjoyable series I have been involved with, and I know people say that at the end of working on a particular project, but I can genuinely say I personally did not want it to end. I walked away from the set really upset. I remember feeling this genuine sense of loss, but obviously I had a sense of great satisfaction because this was mould-breaking television.

I’m convinced it will become a classic piece of drama. It is very well written and structured, everything you see in episode one resonates in the whole series through to episode eight. All the characters are so well defined it was a joy to work on and be a part of.

Many of the cast had worked together before filming. Was this a major plus factor from day one for you?

There was great camaraderie, individually and collectively. I have been fortunate to work with some of the lads before, and (writer) Stephen Butchard is someone I hugely respect and admire.

I can promise fans of crime dramas that this series takes it to another level. That is what appealed to me when I first read the scripts. By page nine I knew I wanted to be Ronnie. He is someone eyeing up retirement, just as a rival gang organisation are preparing to attack.

This is a story about a family on the verge of being destroyed by ambition, pride and greed. There has not been anything like it before and I’m very pleased that I have been a part of it. I want it to have a long future - everyone involved in it deserves success.

There was another star you want to pay tribute to - an old friend of sorts?

Liverpool, the city itself, is always a joy to visit and work in. It is a special place and has been good to me and it has a special place in my heart. The people welcome you with open arms and that makes things so much easier for any production crew. They are respectful that you have a job to do and let you get on with it.

They are proud to have you in their city, using their home as a location is recognition of its appeal. They are also grateful that the city’s economy benefits from being one of the most used places to film.

The city looks brilliant on film, from the waterfront to Chinatown, and across to the Wirral, where Ronnie lives. This City is Ours is a great title in many ways because it is defiant and triumphant.

Was there a buzz on the first day of filming?

Having a happy cast and crew in place is a sure sign you are all feeling the same thing, and yes, there was a buzz.

Jack McMullen, who plays my son Jamie, is a real talent and I can see great things ahead for him in the future. He is a very thoughtful, hard-working actor who takes his job seriously, as does James Nelson-Joyce, who I have worked with before. James plays my best friend Michael Kavanagh. And then there’s the talented Hannah Onslow as his partner Diana, and Julie Graham as my wife, Elaine.

The producers deserve special praise for assembling a wide-ranging, talented cast that shines in every way.

A drama needs some relief from the tensions. Does humour have a big part to play in the series?

It is set in Liverpool, which is renowned for its sense of humour. It has a lot to do with how people say things. The humour isn’t obvious – a remark here or there or a put down, too. They are naturally funny people who are sharp witted.

With someone like Stephen (Butchard), with his track record, you could see where things were going in episode one and anticipating what would come to fruition.

The language of the gangsters is very much to the point and to make something humorous is where the skill of the writers comes in and the art of the actors to deliver it.

There is an ongoing theme in the series of the need for change. Would you agree the series is about repercussions?

When I first received the script my immediate reaction was I have got to be in this. It is brutal – but it is very real. I knew I could contribute something to the character of Ronnie. I could picture him and this was by only page nine.

In a short space of time, leafing through the first episode, I could see it was profound, funny, shocking and sinister, but very real. I read the rest of the pages and was hooked.

Ronnie contemplates retirement as a drug lord and this is the catalyst for his son to see about his job, while his own friend Michael wants out too. The main motivation for Michael’s change is that he has fallen in love and wants to be a dad above all else.

The title hints at so many things. This City is Ours looks at possession, ownership, control and defiance. All these scenarios mean taking drastic actions and they have repercussions. They are trapped by their own successes of overseeing drug territories and the constant corruption of power that inevitably surround it.

Which do you prefer - good guy or baddie?

I like the crime genre. Series such as Peaky Blinders and Line of Duty. The BBC do them well. I found this to be different, because it is not from the police point of view, but from the villains’ perspective, and we get to know why they do what they do. It is not gratuitous violence, the storylines are better than that.

I’m sure viewers find the villains more interesting than the good guys. They are certainly interesting to play, and I have played my fair share. I do like silences and pauses. Someone once wrote that my many silences, where I said nothing, spoke volumes. They did not realise that those were moments where I was just trying hard to remember my lines!

If you had to sum up this city is ours in three words, what would they be?

Unique. Exciting. New.

Unique - because it stands out in a strong field. Exciting - because you will be on the edge of your seat. New - because the storytelling is so fresh.

At the end of the day, it’s a love story - but not your normal romance, it’s a brand new love story for now. People watching are going to love it, too.
 

https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/mediapacks/this-city-is-ours#interviewwithseanbeanronniephelan

[patch]

Sean Bean: 'I'd rather play a great character who dies than a mundane character who lives'
Despite starring in the BBC’s brutal new gangster series, Sean Bean has matured and mellowed – but he can still turn on the rage.

This City Is Ours, the quite brilliant BBC drama about Liverpudlian gangsters that started last week, is probably the most Scouse thing you will see on television this year.

Yet there, bang in the middle of the action, hair slicked back from that millstone-grit face and a pistol tucked down his slacks, is one of the most famous Yorkshiremen alive, Sean Bean. He plays Ronnie Phelan, the head of a clan of cocaine-importing Merseyside gangsters and, as you might expect, he’s fantastic.

Bean long ago mastered the art of bending roles to his own personality, so it’s no surprise that Phelan – who crossed the Pennines, cornered the Liverpool drug market, married a local girl and started a crime dynasty – is also from Sheffield.

“I came from a background that wasn’t into acting and all that palaver,” says Bean, the son of a steel fabricator. “But my ambition was just to get on stage and do something, no matter how small. To show people what I could do. Not in a big-headed way, though I guess there was a bit of that.”

He managed it, via a welding course at Rotherham College, then Rada – possibly a unique career progression – before giving the 1990s some of its best big-screen baddies, while always looking to improve and move on. “When I started off, I was good at playing villains, 006 in Bond [GoldenEye] and then Patriot Games. You get typecast but you can’t complain about it, you just try and branch out in different ways.”

Branching out brought worldwide fame, thanks to Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. But recent bravura television performances in Jimmy McGovern and Helen Black’s Time, McGovern’s Broken – both of which won Bean a BAFTA – and now Stephen Butchard’s This City Is Ours, feel like the work that everything else has been leading to. The 65-year-old Bean, I suggest, has achieved a ripe creative maturity.

“You make me sound like an apple!” he laughs, a big man sequestered in a small corporate interview room, a little embarrassed by the praise. “It’s just about the truth, really,” he says. “The truth, reality and authenticity. I’ve come to realise that they’re the salient points, and they make me tick.”

For much of the time since his 1990s portrayal of Napoleonic-era soldier Richard Sharpe, the on-screen Bean has been at war with the world. Who else has an online meme consisting entirely of him saying the word “bastard”? Who else could have inspired a social media campaign – #dontkillseanbean – because he died so often in films? “I realised there were quite a lot of deaths without anybody needing to tell me,” he says of that campaign.

“It was obvious. But I was playing some great characters, juicy, nasty pieces of work, and I thought I’d rather play them and die than play a mundane character that lives. But it came to a point with all the memes and I thought, ‘Maybe I should stop dying as much.’ But it doesn’t bother me any more. And, you know, I’m not really dead!”

I’ve been told he doesn’t like to dwell on this subject or talk about his family, but rather than the walled-up north countryman I half feared, Bean, amused and unassuming in equal amounts, is open about the course he’s taken: “Getting older means you learn to respect your life a little more; not get too excited about petty things. I do still get pissed off now and again, but those times are few and far between.”

So where does this relaxed, mature Sean Bean draw his screen rage from? “I’ve never really seen it as a problem to perform anger or distress. I can snap into that quite easily. We’ve all seen people, our family or friends, turning on a sixpence, going into a rage; it’s shocking and something you always remember.”

That’s not to say, he avers, that the Bean family – father Brian, mother Rita and younger sister Lorraine, resident on a council estate but with plenty of food on the table – were at each other’s throats. “We weren’t always shouting and bawling, but we made our feelings clear. You cleared the air, and it was great. But it was a very loving family, and I’m thankful for that.”

Bean is still a little surprised, I sense, to have come this far. “It’s tough, this game,” he says, then gets up for mineral water, perhaps not quite as quickly as he used to. I’m reminded that, for an actor, navigating the journey from testosterone-filled hero to parts that accommodate those extra inches around the waist and inevitable softening of the jawline can be difficult. This, of course, is exactly the trick Bean pulled off as imprisoned middle-aged drink-driver Mark Cobden in Time.

“I’ve had some great roles and a varied career – I’m very grateful for that,” he says on his return, before revealing some advice he gave to his daughters when they considered going into acting: “You get to work on a job that you love but it’s a very temperamental and precarious job, and you really want to do it at the expense of all else.”

That absolute commitment to the craft might point to why Bean has been married five times (“I’m a romantic,” was the explanation he gave The Times in 2022). Those relationships have given him three daughters, Lorna, 37, and Molly, 33, with his second wife Melanie Hill and, Evie, 26, with his third wife Abigail Cruttenden.

Now that Bean, married to Ashley Moore since 2017, has young grandchildren, is he tempted by lighter projects, more whimsical things that they could watch? “Are you saying I can’t let my grandchildren watch anything I’ve been in?” he laughs. “I have done Percy Jackson & the Olympians and my two eldest, boys of seven and eight, might be ready for Lord of the Rings in a couple of years.”

The grandkids certainly won’t be watching This City is Ours, which is often brutal. “A gangster film without violence – it’s not going to run, is it?” he says. “But I think it’s done very authentically, which can be more distressing, more powerful. If it’s glamorised, it’s not so shocking. But I don’t like gratuitous violence and I don’t particularly like big fight scenes or battle scenes, people just being mowed down by machine guns recklessly.”

Bean’s character, Ronnie, plans to retire to Spain, but who will take over the business: his intellectually challenged son Jamie, played by Jack McMullen, or young lieutenant Michael, the linchpin of the firm’s deals with Colombian drug cartels, played by Liverpudlian actor James Nelson-Joyce? Things are further complicated when a huge shipment of cocaine goes missing at the docks. “These people experience euphoria and confidence because of the drugs riches they think are coming their way,” says Bean.

“And when they crash from that feeling I guess it’s like a comedown from drugs. They’ve got villas in Spain and money stashed away, but they’re living in fear. Ronnie can change in a flash, flare up in a split second, and that’s because of his instability and paranoia.”

Increasingly, that paranoia is directed at Nelson-Joyce’s Michael. The two actors have previous: Nelson-Joyce tried to set Bean’s feet on fire in a prison-cell scene in Time, though I think Bean might have forgiven him. “James is smashing,” he says. “I’ve got the greatest respect for him and faith that he’s going to be a big star. That day is not far away.”

Bean and Nelson-Joyce both have an authenticity rooted in the culture and sound of their respective cities, and Bean sees This City Is Ours and other northern, working-class TV series as “an antidote to RP [Received Pronunciation] dramas. It’s nice to see the other side, to get a more balanced view of how society is.”

Nelson-Joyce lives in Liverpool, but Bean and Moore have a home in rural Somerset. “It was accidental, really. I’d lived in London since drama school, and I just realised my girls had grown up and got married and were having kids,” he says. “I thought, ‘I don’t know what I’m really here for.’ Then Ashley saw this quirky little place in Somerset, with a lot of trees and water and land. I find it very relaxing, there’s nothing there, just the sound of birds and a stillness. It allows me to recharge my batteries, get rid of the detritus of the last part that might still be hanging around.”

Isn’t that a bit soft and, well, southern for the voice of Yorkshire Tea? “A younger me probably wouldn’t believe I’m in Somerset,” Bean says. “But he would have been overjoyed just to have got a foothold in the business.”

Does he still think of that younger, sometimes surly Sean, making his way down from the Steel City, burning to show the world what he can do? “If I think back to then and ask, ‘Why did I want to do this?’, it was because something spurred me on, something clicked inside me. And I’m still doing it, I have the same belief as I did then,” he looks straight into my eyes. “That’s the main thing to me.”

https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/sean-bean-this-city-is-ours/