Julie Graham, who plays Elaine Phelan in the second season of the BBC drama This City Is Ours, has said that ignoring Scouse women would be done "at your own peril." The 61-year-old, who hails from Glasgow, returned to screens as the Phelan family matriarch as the family faces threats from Ozzie Thompson (Shaun Evans), the Colombian cartel, and internal division within the gang. The third episode airs tonight.
A matriarchal society
Graham told the ECHO that she looked close to home for inspiration to capture Elaine's fierce maternal energy. "Being brought up in a working class family in Glasgow, I was surrounded by a lot of women like Elaine my whole life," she said. "I spent a lot of time in Liverpool in my 20s and 30s. These were like my mate's mums."
"Liverpool, like Glasgow, is a matriarchal society. [Show creator] Stephen Butchard would have ignored those women at his peril. They would have had people coming in after him in the streets saying, 'This is not realistic' if you didn't have a strong woman at the heart of it."
Getting the accent right
Graham is one of few cast members who do not speak with a Scouse accent away from the screen. She credited practice and being surrounded by Scousers as the key to getting the accent right. "It helps having most of the cast and crew from Liverpool. I had an amazing voice coach as well," she said.
She added: "Our sound guy is a Scouser, who was like my private voice coach because I'm in his ear all the time. If I sounded a bit off, he would come in my ear and say that sounded a bit Scottish, or a bit Northern."
"And he was keeping me right. You're surrounded by people from Liverpool [on set and in the city]. You immerse yourself in the accent and your ear gets really attuned to it. It's a difficult accent to get right and it's the accent you want to get right. Because you don't want to upset Scousers."
Embraced by the city
Graham said she has been overwhelmed by the way Scousers have embraced the show. "This show shows off Liverpool's bells and whistles and makes the city looks beautiful and there's a creative energy and buzz about Liverpool," she said. "Everybody is so welcoming and, if they take you to heart and love you, then it's the best place to be because Scousers will let you know if they don't like you."
"Thank goodness they loved the show because they really embraced it. Being in the city again, I was picked up by a taxi driver at the station and the driver was saying he can't wait to see season two, and now season three."
"Liverpool is like my second home. Glasgow and Liverpool are really similar and I feel like home from home."
The iconic dance
Graham said she knew the House of Bamboo dance sequence would become a viral sensation when she first read it in the script. "I had a meeting with the director after I'd read the script. And I said to him, 'Please don't cut the dance scene.' He said, 'We're not going to cut the dance scene'. I just said, 'When you film these things and the episode is long, these are the things that get cut. I'm telling you now, 'This dance is going to be iconic.'"
When the dance first aired in episode one, some dismissed it as the sort of thing that would never happen at a Scouse function party. It is now a staple on the Liverpool dancefloor and makes a return in season two.
Graham said she is proud of the show's success as it continues into a third season, which films next year. "When you read the scripts and then you're in the room with the cast, you hope that people are going to love it as much as you do," she said. "You don't know in the process of filming it, there's an alchemy that happens. It just so happened we had such a brilliant cast and crew and they seemed to love the show. It was a joy to film. Thank goodness people loved it."
"In all the years I've worked in the industry, that's never happened. To have a show come out and for it to be immediately recommisioned is very, very rare. It's a testament to the show. How much the people love it, how much the BBC believe in it. And the brilliant storytelling from Stephen Butchard."
This City Is Ours continues on BBC One tonight at 9pm. All episodes of season two are available to watch on iPlayer.
