This City Is Ours star talks filming ‘iconic’ group dance routine 

The cast of This City Is Ours had their own ‘Perfect Couple’ moment in the opening episode of the BBC’s new crime drama. 

Starring Sean Bean and James Nelson-Joyce, the new eight-parter follows a crime family in Merseyside, who have been running the Liverpool cocaine scene for two decades. But when a drug shipment from Colombia goes missing, it becomes clear that their kingdom is under attack. 

In episode one, members of the crime gang take to the dance floor at a family christening for a synchronised dance routine to Andy Williams’ 1950s track, House of Bamboo, which was reminiscent of the flash mob sequence from Netflix’s The Perfect Couple, starring Nicole Kidman. 

Ahead of the premiere, Julie Graham, who plays matriarch Elaine Phelan, said she was “really excited” when she saw the dance routine included in the script and said it was one of her favourite scenes to film. 

“It felt iconic,” the actress told HELLO! and other press at a Q&A. “It was a brilliant way to show how close [the family are] and have a bit of fun. I love The House of Bamboo, what’s not to love? I was really excited,” she added.

© BBC/Left Bank Pictures/James Stack

The new series is billed as a story about “family and love destroyed and corrupted by ambition, pride and greed” and follows Michael (Nelson-Joyce), a man who has spent his adult life involved in organised crime. But after falling in love with Diana, he sees a future for the first time in his life. 

The synopsis continues: “This City is Ours tells the story of Michael and Diana’s love affair, set against the disintegration of Michael’s crime gang. For years, together with his friend Ronnie (Sean Bean), Michael has successfully been bringing cocaine into the City and beyond, directly from Columbia; but when a shipment goes missing, then he knows their Kingdom is under attack.

© BBC

“This City explores what happens when Ronnie’s son Jamie (Jack McMullen) decides he wants to inherit their kingdom and that there is no longer a place for Michael at the table. Both Michael and Jamie have bold ideas to modernise the gang and they will battle for control of it. But Michael’s biggest battle will be to save the woman he loves and the child he has always wanted.”

This City Is Ours comes to BBC One and iPlayer on Sunday 23 March.