Viewers of BBC’s This Town had mixed feelings as the drama hots up with just two episodes left to go. The latest instalment of the Birmingham set drama from Steven Knight, who also created Peaky Blinders, saw aspiring musician Bardon Quinn (played by Ben Rose) arrested and beaten by officers.
He has been acting as an informant for his cousin, soldier Gregory Williams (Jordan Bolger), who is on an undercover assignment. However, he is getting his information as he has also been helping his father with his activities for the terrorist organisation and tonight (Sunday 14), it looked like it had finally caught up with him.
Viewers felt that the IRA subplot was too much alongside the central story of the formation of a band. Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter they shared their thoughts.
@nige_h64 commented: “Very much enjoying #thistown but can’t help thinking they could have left it as a story of a band forming to the backdrop of poverty and riots and done an equally strong drama on IRA activists in Brum.”
@o_reachtaire agredd writing: “#thistown would have been interesting enough had it just been about a band being formed against the backdrop of 1980s Britain. The troubles and race riots are stories for another show. There is just far too much going on to tackle one subject properly.”
However @CompareRad disagreed, opining: “With the razor sharp edge of Peaky Blinders but now set in the West Midlands at the birth of Ska while IRA bombings continued a pace in the late 79s/early 80s, BBC’s #ThisTown’ is a heady mix of life as an inner city youth where you can choose your friends but not your family!”
Meanwhile, @SiGil08 took umbrage at a completely different element of the show, as they felt the band scenes were not convincing. “This Town is great in all respects EXCEPT the ludicrous idea that people don’t need to learn tunes, they just automatically know them as if by magic #thistown.”
This Town is set in 1980s Brimingham and follows the formation of a band at the beginnng of the ska movement – against a backdrop of race riots and IRA activity.
The drama also stars Downton Abbey’s Michelle Dockery, who portrays Bardon’s mother, alcoholic singer Estella.
“She’s an amazing character, I just loved her. When I read the script for the first time, I just fell in love with all of the characters in this, it’s just so beautiful and relatable,” she told Express.co.uk and other media in advance of the first episode.
“They’re a real family, and you start to see that as the episodes go on, they come together when the characters begin to come home. It was instant. I just fell in love with her and every character has so much heart,” she gushed.
This Town continues on BBC One on Sunday nights at 9pm. All episodes are available to watch on BBC iPlayer.