The BBC has released the first images of its new drama which has been written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight.
Knight, who was also the co-director of the Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony in 2022, has once again taken inspiration from his Birmingham upbringing to create a new drama.
His new show called This Town also draws on the rich heritage of the West Midlands - this time looking at the ska and two-tone music scene which began in Coventry and Birmingham.
This Town is described as a family drama and is based on “an extended family and four young people who are drawn into the world of ska and two-tone music which exploded from the grass roots of Coventry and Birmingham in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, uniting black, white and Asian youths,” according to BBC.
New photos from the BBC show the show’s main characters together.
Led by an exciting cast of rising talent, the six-part series stars Levi Brown (Loss and Return), Jordan Bolger (The Woman King, The Book of Boba Fett), Ben Rose (Line of Duty, The Innocents) and Eve Austin (You, Our Ladies) as its four young leads.
Parts of filming has taken place in Birmingham, including and at Steven Knight’s new Digbeth Loc. Film and TV Studios.
Acclaimed producer Dan Carey, and Brit and Mercury nominated musician, novelist and poet Kae Tempest, have also written the songs performed by the band in the series.
What’s This Town about?
This Town opens in 1981 at a moment of huge social tensions and unrest. It’s a thriller and family saga against this backdrop.
It will tell the story of a “group of young people fighting to choose their own paths in life, and each in need of the second chance that music offers.”
Speaking about the show, Knight has said: “This is a project very close to my heart. It’s about an era I lived through and know well and it involves characters who I feel I grew up with. It’s a love letter to Birmingham and Coventry but I hope people from all over the world will relate to it.”
See the first eight photos from This Town below:
1. Bardon Quinn (Ben Rose), Gregory Williams (Jordan Bolger), Dante Williams (Levi Brown)
2. Levi Brown as Dane Williams
3. Eve Austin as Jeannie Keefe and Levi Brown as Dante
4. Michelle Dockery as Estella and Nicholas Pinnock as Deuce Williams