{"id":48776,"date":"2024-03-31T10:00:57","date_gmt":"2024-03-31T08:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=2016253"},"modified":"2024-03-31T10:08:50","modified_gmt":"2024-03-31T08:08:50","slug":"is-this-town-based-on-a-true-story","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/is-this-town-based-on-a-true-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Is This Town based on a true story?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steven Knight has explained the inspiration for the 1980s-set drama. <\/p>

By James Hibbs\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Sunday, 31 March 2024 at 08:00 AM<\/p>

\n\n

New BBC drama This Town<\/a> is set in Birmingham and the Midlands during the 1980s, and comes from Peaky Blinders<\/a> creator Steven Knight.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Given Peaky Blinders<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

Read on for everything you need to know about whether This Town<\/a> is based on a true story.<\/p>\n

Is This Town based on a true story?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"Ben\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Ben Rose as Bardon Quinn in This Town.<\/span><\/figcaption> BBC\/Banijay Rights\/Kudos<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

No, This Town isn\u2019t strictly based on a true story<\/strong>, with the specific events and characters being entirely fictional.<\/p>\n

However, there are national and local events referenced in the series, such as the Handsworth riots in 1981, which did happen in real life.<\/p>\n

Knight was inspired by his own experiences in Birmingham and the Midlands at the time, during the \u201980s, in order to craft the narrative for the series, which delves into the rise of ska and two-tone music<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What has Steven Knight said about the inspirations behind This Town?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"Levi\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Levi Brown as Dante Williams in This Town.<\/span><\/figcaption> BBC\/Banijay Rights\/Kudos<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

Knight explained his original basis for the series, saying: \u201cThe setting and backdrop for This Town is 1981, Birmingham and Coventry.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u201981 was a time of turmoil and change in every sense \u2013 in society, in politics, but in music as well. This series opens with a riot and I hope the sense of \u2018riot\u2019 continues throughout the whole thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe riot was a real thing, it happened in Handsworth, Birmingham, and I\u2019ve used that to introduce four very different characters who will come together.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou might say it\u2019s about music or it\u2019s about people who are drawn to a certain type of music, but I\u2019ve tried not to do that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving said that, I hope \u2018bleak\u2019 isn\u2019t a word that people use to describe this, because what I\u2019m trying to do is meet these people living their lives on big, sprawling housing estates in the early \u201980s and it\u2019s beautiful. The place is beautiful. The series is not trying to say, \u2018Isn\u2019t it awful?’\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking about how he drew from his own experiences for the series, Knight revealed that he \u201cgrew up in an environment not entirely dissimilar\u201d from that which is seen in the drama<\/strong>.<\/p>

He continued: \u201cThe music was around at the time, and for us it was \u2018other\u2019, it was different, and everyone liked it. I\u2019m 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey 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\u2019s just what happened. I thought that was quite an important thing to illustrate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s depicting working class life without any sense of sorrow or pity and, rather than that, seeing the glory and the glamour of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always thought motorways at night are very beautiful, so the M6 is a big character in this, and \u2013 not necessarily to live in but to look at \u2013 huge, big tower blocks, looking down from the top to the rest of the world. I wanted to get all of that in.<\/p>\n

\u201cLuckily, our brilliant director Paul Whittington has made it look like a painting.\u201d<\/p>\n