“Brilliantly conceived, written and acted”: Goodbye Brassic, the raucous sitcom with real heart | television

forLame Prasic on Dominic West. While filming Pride, a 2014 thriller about gay Londoners who find solidarity with a militant Welsh community during a miners’ strike, West was acting alongside lanky live wire Joseph Gilgun, who regaled him with wild tales of growing up in Chorley in Lancashire. Tickled by tales such as the theft of a Shetland pony, West encouraged Gilgun to mine his formative years for material that could become a TV programme.

Gilgun has teamed up with screenwriter Danny Brocklehurst, who is no stranger to authentic Northern humor after working on Channel 4’s Shameless. The result was Brassic, a swashbuckling comedy about a rowdy gang of rowdies, traders and wheeler dealers trying to stay one step ahead of the law and the local wealthy in the fictional northern town of Hawley. In addition to repurposing the squirming and diving of his youth, the biographical elements extended to beloved Gilgun gang leader Vinnie O’Neill coming to terms with being bipolar. The main character details also meant a recurring role for the stocky West as Finney’s relentlessly inappropriate doctor Dr. Chris.

When Brassic debuted on Sky in August 2019, it was a huge success and became the broadcaster’s biggest comedy launch in years. Now, after seven seasons (placing it alongside Trolled as Sky’s longest-running local comedy series), co-creators Gilgun and Brocklehurst call back the time with the 50th episode, a surprisingly tidy digital culmination for a series that has always embraced chaos.

Putting aside the exuberant and escalating farce of Brassick’s countless shady exploits — which included stealing bull semen, infiltrating a nude cult, and multiple mix-ups involving corpses in compromising positions — the show’s greatest strength has always been its deep bench of loud-but-caring characters.

Early seasons highlighted the intense emotional triangle between Vinnie, his upwardly mobile childhood friend Dylan (Damien Moloney), and Dylan’s compassionate girlfriend Erin (Michelle Keegan). But their wider circle, seemingly permanently fixed to the Crow’s Nest bar, was full of brash, big-hearted oddballs: devious businessman Tomo (Ryan Sampson), openly gay fighter Ash (Aaron Heffernan), loyal mechanic JJ (Parth Thackerar) and unlikely lovers Cardi (Tom Hanson) and Carol (Bronagh Gallagher).

Even amid this distinguished crew, there is an early breakthrough: the gang’s spleen enemy Farmer Jim (Steve Evets). With his scruffy wool hat and scruffy beard, Farmer Jim looks like Captain Bird’s Eye marinated in sheep’s dip, always one step away from a foul-mouthed drunken tirade. Over the course of seven seasons, the indefatigable Evets has been responsible for some of the best on-screen swearing since the imperial phase of The Thick.

Having an ensemble strong enough that anyone could step into the spotlight kept Brassic firing on all cylinders even as cast members came in and out. (Moloney left in Season 4; Bergerac may have been too gloomy because he missed Hawley’s high rollers.) A steady stream of on-set guest stars helped, including Lee Mack, Steve Pemberton, Lisa Tarbuck, Imelda Staunton, Greg Davies, and Manny from the Stone Roses. Season 5 featured the surprise turn of Camille Cottin from the hit French film Call My Agent as a therapist who helps Vinny shake off his traumatic childhood. The addition of Shameless veteran Dean Lennox Kelly as former acid DJ Curtis Plum also felt like a full circle moment.

The clunky plot and near-constant (but mostly affectionate) insults always made it easy to dismiss Brasek as rude or juvenile; The UK version of the delightfully sleazy revue It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, another long-running sitcom about assholes in a bar looking for kicks.

But on a literal level, Brassic has always been brilliantly conceived, written and acted. There are echoes of Spaced, Community, and even Family Guy in its use of elaborate flashbacks, fantasy sequences, and dance numbers. What’s impressive is how everyday pub scenes are optimized for maximum humour, with almost every line embellished with sarcastic asides, knowing looks or background slapstick. Brasic’s extravagant, extreme style of comedy aligns with Hawley’s crew’s “all or nothing” philosophy.

So maybe it’s best to take a bow before you get burned. Appropriately for a show in which the characters spend a lot of time growing a weed farm, Brassic goes out on a high note. (Last year saw a wave of renewed interest when the first four seasons became available on Netflix UK.) The climactic 50th episode was pitched as a tonal departure, suggesting that Hawley’s volatile gangster Davy McDonagh (Neil Ashton) might finally lose his patience with Vinnie and the gang. The fact that Season 7 was released weekly rather than as the usual box set certainly heightened the feeling of anticipation and dread. That fans are genuinely concerned about the fate of these nominally annoying characters speaks volumes about how beloved they are. However, they had a good performance. Good fare to you, ne’er-do-wells.