CREATOR OF TV
OUR Girl star Michelle Keegan slips out of her army uniform and into a slinky eye-popping lycra outfit to celebrate her return to blockbuster dark comedy Brassic.
She’s back in her role as cash-strapped single mum Erin for the second outing of the highly acclaimed Sky series.
And the ex-Corrie actress who made BBC military drama Our Girl such a hit will be gunning for laughs as she becomes a magician’s assistant in the show about a bunch of northern lads who’ll do anything dodgy to get cash.
Fans of edgy Brassic will welcome the sight of Michelle, 32, back with Vinnie and mates Dylan, Tommo, JJ, Ash and Cardi as they try to survive in fictional rural Lancashire town Hawley.
But lead star and series creator, ex-Emmerdale actor Joe Gilgun, says she and the other women in the show are not just there as eye candy.
“Often in shows they are a prop,” he says. “But I didn’t want it to be about the girls being rivals or holding up another character, the boyfriend, the husband.
“We wanted girl power, and we’re going to do that again this time.
“I feel like Michelle’s really had an opportunity on this show to showcase her emotional range. She’s an unbelievable actress and we wanted her to be able to show what she’s made of.”
In the first series of Brassic – billed as the new Shameless – viewers fell in love with Erin who had son Tyler in her teens and is desperate to give him the upbringing she never had. In series two she has a powerhouse sidekick in newcomer Sugar (Joanna Higson).
SCAMS
Joe, 36, says it’s the characters in Brassic that matter to him, not their gender or anything else. “Much like Ash being gay isn’t a subject. Like JJ being Muslim isn’t a subject, or Vinnie’s being bipolar, it’s just who he is – and that’s the only way to get rid of that bulls ***.
“I hope that will resonate with viewers because we work bloody hard and we do consider these things. Its not all about robbing horses and growing weed.”
This time around, Erin is very much one of the lads, having failed the exams she was desperate to pass at the end of the last series.
She’s even the mastermind behind some of their hilarious scams – from robbing a circus, where Erin ends up caged in a magic trick, to staging their own low-rent Glastonbury.
But the key to Brassic’s success– which saw the first series followed by 1.6million viewers – is that it switches between all-out farce and heart-rending emotion.
This series will follow the same pattern with Erin as the victim of a sex attack after becoming a high class escort for a local gangster. Joe felt it was an important subject to introduce as she’s torn over whether to report it.
“I think a lot of women can feel embarrassed by this awful thing that’s happened to them,” says Joe. “They’re made to feel that way, which is awful.
“In these scenes we wanted to remind everyone that women have a voice, but men can make them feel unsafe.
“Erin is a very strong woman, she’s a survivor. We wanted to show she’s tough. She’s got Tyler to think of and ultimately, it’s about surviving and coping with what has happened to her.”
Brassic has truly been a labour of love for Joe. It took five years even getting the show on TV and many of the storylines are taken from the actor’s own life growing up in Chorley, Lancashire.
He even made the brave decision to highlight his real-life struggle with bipolar through his character, Vinnie.
So when the first episode aired, Joe was delighted when praise poured in. “The night it came out, I was terrified,” he admits. “It’s about my bloody life, so