This Town tells the story of an extended family and four young people who are drawn into an explosive and iconic music scene in the early 1980s. It is set across the streets of Coventry and Birmingham, and opens with rioting in both places. This Town tells the story of a band's formation against a backdrop of violence.
This Town was written and created for BBC One by Steven Knight and directed by Paul Whittington. It is produced by Kudos and Nebulastar and co-produced by Universal Music Group’s Mercury Studios.[2]
Development
Knight and producer Nick Angel began working in November 2020 with the production companies Kudos and Stigma on a project set during the early 1980s UK music scene.[3] A six-part series was commissioned by BBC One in April 2022.[4]
For Knight, it is a project he has said is more personal work to him than his previous Birmingham based television series Peaky Blinders, with Knight describing This Town as his “love letter” to the area he grew up in and “an era I loved through and know well and [involving] characters who I feel I grew up with.”[5]
Principal photography started in Birmingham in November 2022 on location in the city and at Knight’s Loc. Film and TV Studios.[9] Filming locations also included Wolverhampton where a race riot was filmed.[10] A casting call for extras to play skinheads was put in the local media[11] and music press.[12] In March 2023, filming took place in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent.[13]
The soundtrack also features original songs performed by the actors, with lyrics by poet Kae Tempest and music by Dan Carey. Carey also worked with the actors, who had varying levels of musical skills, to play the instruments and sing the songs as a band, eventually named Fuck the Factory.[17][18]
Hamish McBain in The Evening Standard wrote that the "period specific sets are perfect” but commented that the pacing of the series was slower than the trailer suggested.[21] Carol Midgley writing for The Times awarded the first episode three stars out of five, writing that it is “sharp and the music is, as with most of Steven Knight’s dramas, expertly weaponised. But episode one was also meandering, slow and, dare I say it, often self-indulgent.”[22]
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 67% approval rating with an average rating of 6.5/10 based on 15 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Steven Knight's This Town has a shapelessness that will sag some viewers' investment, but it holds intriguing insights into its specific cultural milieu."[23]