All We Know About New BBC Drama, This Town
Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight has had a busy 2023, working on Great Expectations and All the Light We Cannot See starring Mark Ruffalo, and now he’s working hard on a new BBC series.
This Town is an upcoming six-part drama coming to BBC One, starring Downton Abbey’s Michelle Dockery lead role. The throwback series is set in the early 1980s and tells the story of an extended family and the two-tone/ska craze of the era.
What is This Town about?
Michelle Dockery, best known for her role as Lady Mary Crawley in Downton, leads the cast as one of the (currently unnamed) major characters. This Town centres around an extended family, and four young people who become drawn to the world of ska and the rise of two-tone that became one of the defining musical trends of the period. The two-tone scene originated out of Birmingham and Coventry and became popular with young people at the time across racial and social divides.
What else do we know?
Opening in 1981, the show is set with a backdrop of social tensions and unrest in Birmingham and Coventry. Four young adults, played by Levi Brown (Loss and Return), Ben Rose (Line of Duty), Jordan Bolger (The Woman King) and Eve Austin (You), are trying to navigate their lives as well as this huge social turmoil and find that music and ska offer an escape.
Described by the BBC as “both a high-octane thriller and a family saga”, This Town tells the story of how music can offer a second chance in life and, as you’d expect, is underscored by an eclectic soundtrack of hits from the time.
Steven Knight commented that it’s “about an era I lived through and know well…it’s a love letter to Birmingham and Coventry but I hope people from all over the world will relate”.
Who else stars?
Alongside Dockery and the four lead actors, the series is also set to feature Geraldine James (Back to Life), Peter McDonald (The Batman), Freya Parks (The School of Good and Evil), Séanin Brennan (The Fall) and Brendan Gibson (Peaky Blinders).
"It's a homage to the music but also a homage to the people of the West Midlands who are endlessly creative."
— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) August 2, 2023
Screenwriter Steven Knight, who created Peaky Blinders, tells @MarthaKearney about his new 80s drama 'This Town', coming to the BBC next year.#R4Today pic.twitter.com/mh8hQFWxwc
There’s currently no trailer or official images of the series yet, though filming has been underway in Birmingham, and the series is set to release sometime next time next year on BBC One.
