Brassic

Brassic is a new comedy from Shameless writer Danny Brocklehurst and actor Joe Gilgun (Woody in This Is England). Vinnie (Gilgun), sharp, witty, bipolar, is first seen wanting to jump off a bridge in the fictional northern town of Hawley, then launching into a Trainspotting-esque spiel ("Fuck the middle class, fuck the Guardian", etc). Vinnie thinks that life is "about having your mates, having a laugh, just finding a way to survive". Duly, this week's opening two episodes involved him, his best mate, Dylan (Damien Molony), and their gang becoming embroiled in hectic, caper-strewn plots encompassing everything from the kidnapping of Shetland ponies via dealing with underground fatbergs to hostile crime bosses.

Deeper themes lurk in Brassic, not least Vinnie's condition (Gilgun has bipolar disorder in real life), and Dylan's partner, young mum, Erin (Michelle Keegan), refusing to go along with the culture of extended adolescence, at one point acidly remarking to Vinnie that there appeared to be "three of them" in her and Dylan's relationship. "If it is, I'm the one getting the least sex", quipped Vinnie. On this showing, Brassic is funny, scratchy, surprising (Dominic West shows up as a useless, self-absorbed doctor), and promises to get darker.