Jamie Learns Crime Doesn't Grieve in ‘This City Is Ours’

Deceased Liverpool drug dealer Ronnie Phelan is going home, as This City Is Ours opens this week, escorted by his loyal (or otherwise) entourage, stuffed into a freezer in a van on the ferry. Jamie, Ronnie’s son and heir apparent, gazes at the sea after an attempt to kill his rival, Michael Kavanagh, has failed. Michael, sick and groggy, finally wakes and meets with the others in the vehicle bay, as Jamie tries to spin it as if Michael were drunk. (No go. Michael remembers what really happened.)

Banksey and Jamie take the car, while Michael drives the van with Elaine in the passenger seat. She becomes nervous as customs activity seems heightened, with sniffer dogs in attendance, and the van is selected for search. When Michael asks what the dog is looking for, he’s told it’s “criminality,” but after a brief search, they’re on their way again. It’s yet another annoying detail that signifies nothing and raises the tension as Jamie’s minions, Bonehead and Blink, leave the ferry. Michael managed to grab Blink’s passport and now knows his real name. (It’s Stephen; we shall always think of him fondly as Blink). 

Elaine, dragged down by grief and shock, asks Michael if he’ll speak at the funeral, and worries about Ronnie looking his best. Michael drops her off at home and takes Ronnie to the undertaker’s, part of the gang’s support system of small shops and businesses used to skirting the law. The undertaker, Frankie (Rob Jarvis), assures Michael he’ll “make sure he [Ronnie] looks the part.”

Michael pays a quick visit home for a beer and to reassure Diana that everything is under control. She admits she saw the bloody knife, and she’s reconciled to the murder. After a truly spectacular shot of Liverpool at dawn, Michael meets Jamie, Banksey, and Bobby in a sauna, where he proceeds to call out Jamie for spiking his drink, followed by the declaration that he’s consulted with the Amigoes and ordered a new supply. Jamie wants to do business with the Albanians, who offer cheap, next-day delivery, but Michael rejects the idea. Jamie finally asks the room if this means Michael is in charge. Bobby and Banksey give their assent,

Michael asks Bobby to task his wife, Rachel, the wannabe accountant, with raising £2m to cover two shipments, the stolen one and the next. Meeting over, they head to a combination hardware-corner-shop, where Blink, aka Steve, is unhappily under guard. He’s even less happy when left with Michael and Banksey, particularly when Banksey waves a power tool around his knees. (And we thought Banksey was a relatively nice guy!) He’s persuaded to commit to Michael, not that he has much choice, and agrees to keep an eye on Jamie for him.

While he’s busy threatening people, Diana gets a surprise visit from Cheryl Crawford (Saoirse-Monica Jackson) as she waits for Michael at the restaurant. You may recall that she tried to talk to Diana in the previous episode, having guessed that something terrible had happened to her husband, Davy, and that no one would admit it. Diana denies it, insisting that Davy went to visit a friend and that Michael will confirm. Cheryl doesn’t buy it for a second and storms out.

It’s not an auspicious start for a very important day in Michael and Diana’s lives, the implantation of her fertilized eggs, but everything goes well. They both look blissfully happy and teary-eyed as they watch the screen and hear the early heartbeats at the IVF clinic. After the procedure, they stroll in one of Liverpool’s tourist areas on the reclaimed dockland, opposite the famous Liver Bird building, and eat ice cream. Michael insists on taking the first photo of her as a pregnant lady.

Bobby visits Elaine to see how she’s doing and discuss the dynamics of the new order. Ronnie never formally appointed a successor; Elaine trusts that Jamie will peacefully take charge. (“Like royalty!”) Bobby and Rachel debate, but they prefer Jamie’s leadership, despite their friendship with Michael, especially since they sunk money into these shipments. Maybe they’ve got the right idea. Jamie and Bonehead visit a laundromat run by Helen (Polly Kemp), an old family friend and protégée of Ronnie.

Surprise! – A cabinet in a locked room upstairs reveals the missing drugs, and Bonehead is thrilled by the quantity, which has a street value of over £3 million. Jamie, being the delicate soul he is, thinks it would be inappropriate to move forward with selling it, uttering a truly classic line:

Can’t bury my dad and sell his gear at the same time.

Jamie tells Bonehead he plans to kill Michael after the funeral. Did you suspect Jamie had taken charge of the shipment? Maybe he’s smarter than we thought.

Meanwhile, Banksey is boasting to his son Freddie that he’s now second-in-command under Michael, only to realize, to his abject horror, that the kid expects to follow him into the business. The two are on the way to pick up another associate, Billy (Shane Walker), whom Michael wants to question about the missing drugs. (His horror doesn’t prevent him from having Freddie go to the door.) Billy joins them in the car and laughs that Ronnie was whacked. Banksey gets mad and insists it was a heart attack. 

When Banksey calls, Michael announces he’s popping out for takeaway. When he arrives at the car, he asks Freddie to leave while they talk, either not wanting to implicate him or unsure whether he can be trusted. But Billy can’t tell him much. He claims he never meets Jamie in person, only receives WhatsApp calls from him.

The episode concludes with the funeral, as Jamie, Melissa, and their baby son go to view Ronnie’s body. Jamie is emotional as he says goodbye to his father. Meanwhile, across town, Billy watches as Helen opens the laundromat and then goes inside, explaining that Jamie sent him for “something he wanted.” He smashes the padlock of the cabinet, and carries out the drugs in trash bags, calls his girlfriend Molly (Eva Morgan) to come over to pick him up, and the episode ends as they drive away. It looks like Billy has joined the growing list of characters who are in big trouble.

This City Is Ours: A Crime Family Saga continues with new episodes on Thursdays through April 23, 2026.