The City Is Ours, the BBC’s Liverpool-laced crime saga that premiered March 23, 2025, with 6 million viewers and became iPlayer’s biggest new drama launch of the year, has saddled up for Season 2, confirmed May 11, 2025, with filming underway and a March 25, 2026, premiere, reuniting Sean Bean as the “shocking comeback” of Ronnie Phelan in a flashback episode amid escalating gang rivalries and betrayals that promise to “torch” the Scouse underbelly. Created by Stephen Butchard and produced by Left Bank Pictures, the 8-episode arc—filmed in Liverpool and Spain from October 2025—stars James Nelson-Joyce as Michael Kavanagh, whose love with Diana (Hannah Onslow) crumbles under the weight of Ronnie’s legacy, Julie Graham as matriarch Elaine plotting vengeance for her husband’s death, and Jack McMullen as volatile son Jamie.
The season’s sinister surge? Spellbinding: S2’s premiere catapults Michael into the fray, Ronnie’s “backstory” flashback etched with doubt, unspooling a conspiracy where shipments conceal crimes and siblings harbor grudges. Bean’s Ronnie? A “masterclass in menace,” his Yorkshire growl warping to Scouse grit in a “cameo” that “changes everything,” unraveling a ripple of regrets where a father’s “retirement” surfaces as sabotage. Co-stars carve the chaos: Saoirse-Monica Jackson as Diana’s “doubtful” daughter with a sting, Mike Noble as Michael’s “haunted handler” with a grudge, and Darci Shaw as the “calculating” confidant with secrets. Butchard’s script quivers with quips—”Liverpool’s blood runs thicker than Mersey mud”—but the “brutal” brutality bites: a botched bothy burial buries a body, a VVIP viper’s venom turns ally to assassin.
The “grittier than S1”? Seismic: Butchard’s adaptation amps the “pacy” probe with “spooky” soundscapes and “authentic” Scouse accents, the direction a “gripping” gasp of “grim themes” in Liverpool’s “eerie charm.” The Guardian‘s Lucy Mangan raves “very well-made, pacy drama” with Bean’s “reliably likeable” levity; The Independent‘s Ed Power hails Graham’s “Icily Glamorous” iciness and the “understated and spooky” score. Evening Standard‘s Vicky Jessop praises the “overall confidence, style and authenticity.” Skeptics? “Mired in machismo,” but the 1-in-2 clue-to-cliff ratio hooks, BARB metrics outgunning The Jetty.
This isn’t crime confection; it’s a cauldron of cunning, S2’s comeback a clarion for the cunning where legacies lacerate and loves linger. Michael’s maze? Mesmerizing. Ronnie’s roar? Relentless. March 25? Not a drop—a deluge. Binge it; the shipments shiver, the sabotages sting. Bean’s bite? Breathless. The obsession? Overnight, inescapable.
