Game of Thrones actor stars in new Liverpool gangster series shot in Malaga province

The UK's fascination with the Costa del Sol knows no bounds and the recent boom in TV series being filmed in Malaga province reflects this love affair. The latest series to soon feature on the small screen is This City Is Ours, a crime drama starring Liverpool gangsters and featuring the actor Sean Bean, who played Ned Stark in Game of Thrones. The BBC drama was filmed last year in Marbella, Antequera and Malaga city.

The first images from the series, which will premiere in the spring, shows Malaga as a holiday destination in a story of shootings, power struggles and love. When the kingpin (Bean) of the gang considers leaving the front line, his right-hand man and son vie for control of the organisation. Although the central story is set in Liverpool, Marbella also plays a major role in the plot.

Two luxury mansions on the Costa del Sol were the focus of filming, although scenes were also filmed on the seafront in Marbella and Malaga city's port also appears. This is the second international production to use the port, as it also appeared in The Girlfriend (Amazon MGM Studios), directed by Robin Wright (House of Cards). The other Malaga location for this latest BBC series was El Torcal in Antequera.

The British production company Left Bank Pictures - part of the Sony group - is behind the production which was filmed in the province by Palma Pictures, a service company that has already brought the filming of the popular Netflix series The Crown to Malaga, also promoted by the same English company that has filmed This City is Ours for BBC One and its streaming platform. The first two episodes of the eight-part series are set in Marbella.

Created and written by Stephen Butchard (The Last Kingdom) and directed by Saul Dibb (French Suite) and John Hayes (Doctor Who), the cast also includes James Nelson-Joyce, who plays the criminal's right-hand man and who appeared in the series A Town Called Malice (2023) which was set in Malaga but filmed in the Canary Islands; Hannah Onslow (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny), who plays Nelson-Joyce's partner, and Jack McMullen (Condemned), who plays Bean's son. The cast also includes actress Laura Aikman, who filmed in Malaga previously when she played the wife of Hollywood star Cary Grant in the series Archie, as the Californian scenes were filmed at the Huerta del Conde de Pinares de San Antón.

This City Is Ours joins a long list of British series and films that mix organised crime and Malaga as a haven for gangsters. One of the first films was Sexy Beast (2000), starring Ben Kingsley. Another was the series Snatch 2 (2018), about an English gang who set up their headquarters in a beach bar and starred Rupert Grint, Daniel Radcliffe's friend in the Harry Potter series: The miniseries Stonehouse (2023), based on the true story of a corrupt politician pretending to be dead, was also filmed here.

A few months ago, Disney released Rivals, which is set in the world of television in the 1980s and which once again showed the Costa del Sol as an idyllic destination for the British. Netflix also has the premiere of Seven Dials, a thriller that adapts Agatha Christie's legendary novel The Mystery of the Seven Dials, which was filmed last year in Ronda and stars the actor Iain Glen.