This City is Ours season 1 recap: Everything you need to remember ahead of season 2

This City is Ours makes a welcome return to our screens on Sunday, October 25. And if you loved season 1, buckle up for season 2, because it's set to be even more of a shocking ride.

Set in Liverpool, the first series followed gang leader Ronnie Phelan and his criminal family. Ronnie wanted to retire from his life of wrongdoing, but this was never going to be easy for him with an incompetent son and rival gangs poised for attack.

There was also a big focus on Michael in the series, a close associate of the Phelans, who also wants to leave gangland life behind after falling in love - he's torn between following his heart and being the right person to take over Liverpool's underworld.

Season 2 picks up just where season 1 left off, but before you sit down to make your way through the new episodes, let's take a look at everything that happened during season 1 in this handy recap.

This City is Ours season 1 recap

Season one of This City of Ours opens by letting viewers straight in on Michael and his wife Diana's fertility struggles. Visiting an IVF clinic, Michael is told he has a low sperm count and low motility, and the couple's chances of conceiving don't look good.

After his clinic trip, it's straight back to business and Michael needs to head to Spain to talk business with some suppliers.

Leaving the UK with Ronnie and his son Jamie, and senior gang member Davy, the men head to meeting with some men calling themselves the Amigos.

By the end of the discussions, the guys have successfully negotiated a direct shipment of cocaine to be sent to Liverpool in two weeks’ time.

However, after initially seeming to have made it through UK borders without being detected, when it arrives it appears that might not be the case.

Davy has a man on the inside who tells him the truck containing the goods was was taken apart and put back together on arrival in the UK.

Michael thinks they should just leave the shipment where it is and not go near it, believing the police will be waiting for them if they collect it. He and Ronnie discuss the possibility of a rat in their midst, or whether the Amigos are responsible - they settle on there being a rat, and Michael is tasked with finding it.

Ronnie suspects Davy is the rat leaking information. Before they can do anything, both men need to be present at Alfie's christening - he's Jamie's son and Ronnie's grandson.

After the christening, Michael has doubts about Davy being the rat, but the gang have a supply issue to sort out and he runs out of time to give it more thought. The men once again head to Spain to meet with the Amigos, and get themselves some usable drugs after abandoning the shipment.

At Ronnie’s Spanish villa, Michael asks Davy to help him move some alcohol from the garage. As they head to the garage together followed by Ronnie, Ronnie punches Davy in the face and Michael strangles him until he loses consciousness.

While the throttling didn't kill Davy, his days are still numbered. He survives long enough to be thoroughly interrogated by Ronnie, but is eventually shot and killed by the gang leader.

Back at the villa, Michael sees Ronnie and his reckless and impulsive son Jamie growing closer. He becomes paranoid that he is being pushed out of the gang, and this intensifies as Elaine Phelan fiercely backs Jamie to take over from Ronnie, despite him definitely not being the right person for the job.

Also at the villa, Davy's wife Cheryl grows increasingly worried about her husband's whereabouts. In a bid to hide his murder from her, Ronnie and Michael maintain that he went off to attend a 'business meeting', and will be back.

Cheryl doesn't find out the truth about Davy's disappearance until episode 6, where Diana cracks under questioning from hr friend, and admits that he's dead.

But in the immediate aftermath of Davy's murder, Michael's paranoia eventually gets the better of him, and while dealing with hiding his death, Michael makes the shocking decision to kill Ronnie.

Realising he'll never be handed the business as he isn't blood family, and fearing for his life, Michael stabs Ronnie to death as he rests on a sun lounger, with his horrified wife Elaine watching from an upstairs window.

Of course, there's chaos when Ronnie's body is discovered. Knowing that leaving his remains in Spain would lead to a police inquiry, Michael convinces the Phelan family to take the body back to Liverpool, eventually transporting it inside a freezer unit.

Jamie grows suspicious of Michael suddenly assuming leadership of the gang with his dad now dead, planning to see him off as they make the journey home. He eventually spikes Michael's drink with GHB in an attempt to have him knocked out and killed.

Michael survives and remembers exactly what happened, and after formally taking leadership of the organisation back in Liverpool, confronts Jamie about spiking his drink, and side-lines him in the business.

Furious over being pushed out, Jamie goes behind Michael’s back to source a separate supply of drugs using Albanian contacts.

While work is tense and stressful for Michael, there's some good news for him and Diana when their IVF attempt is successful. Their joy is dampened with Diana's apparent deep inner turmoil over her husband murdering Ronnie, and the couple sadly later lose their baby.

However, it turns out finding out her husband is a killer has released some deeply buried emotions in Diana, and out spills a secret - she is a killer too.

She confesses to Michael that as a teenager, she killed her abusive father to save her mother. The irony is that her mother had ended up taking the blame for it to save her daughter, and is serving life in prison for it.

When Ronnie's funeral comes around, the increasingly divided gang attempt to put on a united front. But behind the scenes, Elaine is urging Jamie to do more to protect the family business.

While Michael continues to strengthen relations and distribution deals with the Amigos, Jamie continues to forge ahead with his mother's wishes and establish his own supply chain to bypass and usurp Michael.

The growing feud and tensions between Michael and Jamie ends in them both agreeing one of them has to walk away. Their solution is to enter into a winner-takes-all cage fight to determine who will take control of the gang and the Liverpool underworld.

Despite ruling that no weapons are taken into the cage and the fight be completely old school, Jamie has a knife smuggled in for him. Although he's stabbed, Michael still wins the fight, but there's no surprises when Jamie refuses to honour the agreement and doesn't leave Liverpool afterwards.

Jamie later attempts a drive-by shooting of Michael, which totally fails. Michael retaliates by ambushing Jamie with a gun, but decides to spare him right at the last moment.

Michael is done with the criminal life at this point, and wants nothing more than to run away and have a peaceful existence with Diana.

By the finale, Michael organises a dinner at Diana’s restaurant to announce his retirement, suggesting Bobby and Banksey take over leadership of the drug trade.

During the dinner, the show's biggest secret so far is revealed - Ronnie Phelan had actually been a police informant. This explains how he'd been untouchable for so many years as head of the crime syndicate.

This also means Davy had never been the rat - it had been Ronnie all along, and Davy died an innocent man.

Later on, furious about not being appointed as gang leader and with everyone reeling from the news about Ronnie, Jamie has Diana kidnapped.

She's now pregnant again, and Jamie sends Michael a video demanding that he take his own life, or Diana will be killed.

Michael responds by getting Cheryl, whose hatred of the Phelans has grown as she's uncovered the truth about Davy's death, to abduct Jamie’s son, Alfie.

Michael and Jamie meet to exchange their hostages, and a successful swap follows. But Michael plunges a metaphorical knife into Jamie's heart by confessing to being the person who killed Ronnie, leaving him totally stunned.

Having spent some of the season also being threatened by the Colombian Cartel- if everything else going on wasn't enough - the finale sees Colombian supplier, Ricardo, run over and killed by Banksey. This temporarily eliminates another threat.

As the season concludes, Michael has successfully left the criminal business and can head off for the new life he wanted with Diana. The police need a new informant and turn their eyes towards a very eager Cheryl.

As the credits roll, Elaine's vehement threats of revenge ring loudly in everyone's ears.

This City is Ours season 2 airs on BBC One and BBC iPlayer from October 25.