Michelle Keegan on playing for laughs
WERE you a fan of Shameless? If so, there’s a new Sky One comedy with your name on it. Brassic is written by Danny Brocklehurst – creator of the aforementioned Channel 4 drama – and actor Joe Gilgun, known for Emmerdale, This Is England and Misfits.
It centres around a group of working-class mates, led by Vinnie (played by Joe), who get themselves into all sorts of ridiculous situations in their hometown of Hawley, Lancashire.
“I’ll just want you to come home after a f ****** nightmare day and see a depiction of the working classes that isn’t f ****** miserable,” suggests Chorleyborn Joe, 35, when asked what he hopes viewers will take from the series.
“I want you to feel like you want to be a part of our gang.”
Here, Joe, and co-stars – Michelle Keegan and Damien Molony – tell us more...
A large focus of the series is how Vinnie is constantly battling with his bipolar disorder (something Joe has in real life).
He had a troubled childhood, blew his first safe when he was seven, and now lives in a shack in the woods outside Hawley.
Michelle, 32, plays Erin, who became a single mum to Tyler at a young age; she is “definitely a positive role model” says the actress.
“And I love the fact she’s fiercely independent and she’s very fiery. But she’s really quite emotional, and as the series progresses you see that side of her.”
Erin’s boyfriend is Vinnie’s best mate, Dylan – played by Damien – who wants to support her dream of succeeding in her career and giving her son opportunities she never had.
“But that involves leaving town,” notes the affable Irish star, 35 (you’ll recognise him from such shows as Ripper Street, Being Human and GameFace).
“And I suppose he’s the only person in the gang who really understands Vinnie’s bipolar disorder and is really worried as to how isolated Vinnie will be if
Dylan leaves. So, that there’s that tension.”
Michelle has appeared in Coronation Street and Our Girl – the only comedy she’s done so far in her career is a small role in ITV2’s Plebs.
Asked why this felt like the right comedic role for her to take on, she says the script felt completely different to anything she’d read.
“There is not one character that is similar to the other,” she notes, “and I think it’s so unique in a way that there’s nothing on TV like it.”
As well as the gang’s comic escapades, there are also plenty of emotional scenes – particularly when it comes to Erin trying to handle her relationship.
“She’s so in love with Dylan and she wants things to work,” explains Michelle, “but she’s got so many hurdles in the way.”
Part of the reason Brassic got made is because of a friendship Joe struck up with Dominic while shooting the film Pride.
He opened up to the The Wire actor about the “crippling anxiety” he was experiencing and was encouraged to channel it into a project (Dominic plays Vinnie’s GP in the show).
“I finished that job and I couldn’t leave my house,” recalls Joe. I had to have the exact amount of change for the milk so there’d be no transaction, you know? When I met Dom he was just like this light at the end a really quite a dark tunnel. He understood me.
“I’d talk to him about my experiences and I’d make him smile and laugh and eventually he said, ‘Look, you’re going to have to do something, you can’t just keep talking about this s***.”’
Joe, who’s open and chatty, shares how he and Danny Brocklehurst worked together to base their writing for Brassic “on some sort of truth... There is genuine truth to a lot of these stories.”
With a laugh, he adds: “I obviously can’t go into too much detail on what is and isn’t true, because I’d be arrested, but a lot of it is based on genuine truth, yeah.” Brassic starts on Sky One on Thursday at 10pm