Steven Knight has explained the inspiration for the 1980s-set drama.
New BBC drama This Town is set in Birmingham and the Midlands during the 1980s, and comes from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight.
The six-part series tells the story of Dante Williams, a young aspiring poet who decides to start a band and set his words to music. Meanwhile, other members of his family are getting caught up in the febrile politics of the era.
Given Peaky Blinders was loosely based on the real-life gang that operated in Birmingham during the late 19th and early 20th century, viewers might be wondering whether This Town has similarly been drawn from real events.
Read on for everything you need to know about whether This Town is based on a true story.
Is This Town based on a true story?
No, This Town isn’t strictly based on a true story, with the specific events and characters being entirely fictional.
However, there are national and local events referenced in the series, such as the Handsworth riots in 1981, which did happen in real life.
Knight was inspired by his own experiences in Birmingham and the Midlands at the time, during the ’80s, in order to craft the narrative for the series, which delves into the rise of ska and two-tone music.
What has Steven Knight said about the inspirations behind This Town?
Knight explained his original basis for the series, saying: “The setting and backdrop for This Town is 1981, Birmingham and Coventry.
“’81 was a time of turmoil and change in every sense – in society, in politics, but in music as well. This series opens with a riot and I hope the sense of ‘riot’ continues throughout the whole thing.
“The riot was a real thing, it happened in Handsworth, Birmingham, and I’ve used that to introduce four very different characters who will come together.
“You might say it’s about music or it’s about people who are drawn to a certain type of music, but I’ve tried not to do that.
“I didn’t really want to do a thing about people who form a band, which is part of what it is, I wanted to create a group people who have no choice other than to form a band because all the other options are so bleak.
“Having said that, I hope ‘bleak’ isn’t a word that people use to describe this, because what I’m trying to do is meet these people living their lives on big, sprawling housing estates in the early ’80s and it’s beautiful. The place is beautiful. The series is not trying to say, ‘Isn’t it awful?’”
Speaking about how he drew from his own experiences for the series, Knight revealed that he “grew up in an environment not entirely dissimilar” from that which is seen in the drama.
He continued: “The music was around at the time, and for us it was ‘other’, it was different, and everyone liked it. I’m not trying to set out to make a political or social point at all, but at this time a particular thing happened where a particular type of music attracted equally Black and white people.
“They danced to and made that music together, not in order to prove a point and not as a consequence of any sort of pressure, but because that’s just what happened. I thought that was quite an important thing to illustrate.
“It’s depicting working class life without any sense of sorrow or pity and, rather than that, seeing the glory and the glamour of it.
“I’ve always thought motorways at night are very beautiful, so the M6 is a big character in this, and – not necessarily to live in but to look at – huge, big tower blocks, looking down from the top to the rest of the world. I wanted to get all of that in.
“Luckily, our brilliant director Paul Whittington has made it look like a painting.”
This Town is available to stream on BBC iPlayer from 6am on Sunday 31st March, while the first episode airs on BBC One at 9pm.
Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what’s on.
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