This City Is Ours star: 'It's mad when people on the street are scared of me'

“It was a beautiful thing between us,” says Nelson-Joyce of working with Bean on the new BBC series, filmed on Merseyside and in Spain. “Sean pulled me aside one day and said, ‘James, I know what it’s like to lead a show and the pressures that come with it. If you ever feel overwhelmed, or if there’s anything you need to ask me about, or if you just need five minutes to vent, I’m here.’ This is Sean Bean, a man who’s won BAFTAs, and he’s taking time out to do that for me! So I have an organic respect for Sean. When you’re around an actor like that, you have to soak up what it is that makes them special.”

Nelson-Joyce’s career is starting to look pretty special, too. As Bean says, he is the lead in This City Is Ours and recently played the kid brother of Stephen Graham’s “Sugar” Goodson in Steven Knight’s A Thousand Blows. He credits Graham, also from Merseyside, with kick-starting his career. “Growing up, I didn’t know a single actor. The people in my life were brickies, builders, people who wanted to be footballers and boxers. It wasn’t until I saw Stephen on telly and he had an accent like mine that I realised it was achievable. It was that thing of, if you see it, then you can believe it.

“I know how lucky I am,” he continues. “I’ve got parents who’ve worked all their lives, slogged and slogged, and their son says, ‘I think I want to have a go with this acting.’ And their response was, ‘OK, son, go do it.’”

This City Is Ours portrays Liverpool as a rough, violent place and Michael as a man who can hold his own; was that Nelson-Joyce’s experience? “I couldn’t punch my way out of a wet paper bag any more,” he says. “I’m not hard, but I know people who are. It’s like any working-class city, you’ve got to be able to look after yourself. But it’s mad when people come up to me in the street and go, ‘I was scared to come over to you, you were horrible in that show.’ It’s just not me.”

Neither, says Nelson-Joyce, is he the screen’s greatest romancer. “The bits where you’ve got 50 people stood around and you’re cuddling each other in a Spanish swimming pool; that kind of stuff is awkward, because you don’t really have those feelings for each other. Hannah [Onslow, who plays his love interest] couldn’t be more like a sister to me, and she certainly doesn’t look at me in that way. I’m not her type at all!”

If Nelson-Joyce does have a true love then it’s his city and its people. “This is a city where you don’t slag people off behind their backs. You don’t do the dirty on someone. You pay your dues. Liverpool has those old-school morals. We treat people with respect.”
A six-week shoot on the Costa del Sol sounds like a dream gig? “Actually, it isn’t easy being away,” he says. “I know you’re not digging holes or doing manual labour and you’re in the sun, but you’re not home.”

Once again, Bean could be relied upon. “He was like a father figure for me, he was one of us. One of my friends was coming out to Spain, and Sean asked, ‘Can you get him to bring us two tubs of Bisto gravy?’ That’s the mark of the man. We’re in the middle of Marbella in this fantastic apartment complex with beautiful restaurants, and all Sean wanted was two tubs of Bisto.”

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This City is Ours is available to stream on BBC iPlayer. New episodes air on BBC One on Sundays.

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