What's it been like filming Series 3?

I feel like it's become a completely different show. I feel like the first two seasons, it was a really fun family and we were all laughing all the time. But now it's become a proper embedded family because we've been together for so many months because of Covid. We usually only do about four months and for this series we've been together for eight months. So we've now become a really embedded family together. We couldn't go home to our families because of filming rules so it's literally just been us hanging out in our small little bubbles, just cooking dinners for each other and playing card games. Which we never, ever have done before, we've just become everyone's support group.

So who's the best cook out of the Brassic gang?

Well, actually Damien's wife, Sarah-Jane, is the best cook out of all of us! She is just the best. She puts together these amazing meals. She's just the hostess with the mostess, to be honest. Who's after that? Ryan's pretty good I'd say. I'm a pretty good host as well. Look, everyone to be honest, they're all quite good. Everyone has their own niches. Some people have more fancy dinner ideas and then others will be like, "Oh, I made a big red sauce pasta." It was a bit like a Brassic Come Dine With Me! Michelle didn't actually cook for us, she offered but never came through!

What can fans expect with Series 3?

Fans can expect a lot more chases, much bigger stunts, huge stunts, which I just never thought would get put into a lovely comedy like ours. I think also a lot more emotion and grit as well, everything kind of seems to be getting tighter and tighter in terms of the pressure from the outside world on the gang and the gang getting older and kind of realising that maybe they're not the perfect, fun people who have luck on their sides all the time.

Have you got a favourite stunt this series?

My favourite stunt? Well the thing is, it's going to be a fun stunt, but I never really took part in it. But in one of the episodes JJ is out fishing, he's having a whale of a time with himself and the fish in the river and he sees a car fall out of the sky into this quarry. He's just convinced aliens are amongst us! I had to be in the river pretending to fish and then there was a massive car dropped down a quarry into the water, there's lots of special FX around that but it was fun to film. I can't say why a car falls out the sky though, you're going to have to wait and see!

JJ cheats on the gang this series by getting involved with other thieves, what's that about?!


I know, I had issues with that! I was like, "Why did he have to be the one to cheat? Why couldn't they pick another guy to do that?" Yeah, he does cheat. These guys are there for each other through thick and thin, but JJ goes where the business and where the money leads him. I think what's wonderful about it is that he immediately regrets it and never wants to do something like that again. But I think this season there are actually quite a few of us in the gang who kind of find our own inner demons, and explore a bit outside the group. So, he does go against the group, upsettingly, but he gets found out!

How do the others react when they find out?

JJ seems like one of the characters who has his life a bit more together in terms of he has a stable business and is a bit more straight forward and straight laced than some of the other guys in the group. So rather than talking it down and being like, "It was a moment of frantic despair and I just went for it." He's more like, "Yeah and? Of course I'm going to do that." That unwinds Vinnie even more and he completely goes crazy because one of his best friends has kind of just turned his world upside down by going against him.

This gang do quite quickly forgive and forget, don't they?


Yeah, I think it comes as an occupational hazard. If they didn't forgive and forget and actually pondered on what just happened or what situations they were actually in, I think they would be very different characters. I feel like they need to carry on and keep running into the chaos because if they look back, they'll stop.

Fans are going to see a romance between JJ and Sugar this series, is he quite surprised by his feelings for her?


100%. I had a chat with Danny and Joe and I thought it would be nice to explore that side of JJ. He comes from a background where he feels he needs to keep his feelings pushed down. I thought it would be a really nice idea to give him some kind of love interest, but find it quite hard for him to process that because he's not really been through those feelings for a very long time and maybe he's dealing with a few demons in his closet. I think it just brings a new sort of layer to his character and maybe also open up a conversation for the fact that guys also think a million things in their heads when they're talking to any love interest, that's normal. I think Danny has done an amazing job at finding a nice, unique story for JJ and Sugar because they are quirky and weird and I think she wants love and she comes from a background where she feels like she's not had that. I think he is so closed off to those sort of things, never even visualised it for himself, never really saw it in his future, just sees his work and the gang as his focus. So for them both to go on this journey of discovery together is lovely to see.

So what is it about her that floats his boat?

Sugar is a magnificent girl and she's super attractive so I feel like any man would be lucky to be with her. I think for JJ being the scruffy, scrubby kind of mechanic that he is, I think in the back of his mind he's like, "She's lovely, she's beautiful and why not?" I kind of feel like that might be the main drive for him.

Do you think it helps that she's involved with the group as well, like Erin is?


Yeah, 100%. I think he's too afraid to maybe go out on his own and try and find those things, whereas Vinnie and maybe Cardi and Ash, for instance, are more confident with dating, Tommo, especially as well. I feel like maybe JJ wouldn't have been one to go and do that. So I think it's something that's sort of fallen in his lap, which has made it much more comfortable for him to go along with.

What's it been like working with Joanna for this storyline?


She's lovely. I mean, she's just a pro and she's been super chilled. I did my first kissing scene, which I've never done and she was just lovely about it. She was really nice and we had a great time. What was really nice for both of us is that we both had quite emotional journeys that our characters had to work out through this storyline. That's a different technique to the comedy and action and punchiness I'm used to. The stuff we filmed together was a lot more intimate, psychological and emotionally. So, I think we both found it a fun experience to kind of tap into that other muscle as actors.

So your first ever screen kiss was on Brassic, what was it like to film?


So, we didn't know if we were allowed to do the kiss or not because of Covid. There was a lot of talk, a lot of discussion, "Okay, do they kiss a dummy? Do we not and do we just shoot it, so in a way it looks like they're kissing somebody? But they're not actually." But then we had done a PCR test, which is the main test you have to do, the morning of the kiss scene. So we were filming and we'd got to the bit where we were meant to kiss, but we would always have to cut before it got to the kiss because we needed to know we were Covid safe. So we did about five takes of us building up to this kiss and then having to stop. Then the message came through that we were both negative and the director was like, "Right, kiss! Go for it!" And we did. As first screen kisses go, it's one I'll never forget for multiple reasons!

Do you think JJ and Sugar can last as a couple?

I'd love them to last, but it's a TV series and those kinds of things you never know, will they, won't they? I guess we'll just have to see! I don't have any say in it. I'm sure Danny and Joe will have clearer ideas, but I hope they last. I think they're a sweet pairing. I certainly think there's a lot more to explore with the two of them. A bit more sort of ups and downs and that kind of stuff. Maybe there could be a baby because she admits she really wants to get pregnant. A Brassic baby would be fun!

Do you think JJ would make a good dad?

I think he'd make a terrible dad! I think all of them would make terrible parents. I would be super scared if I had them as parents, but they'd be fun! I'd probably want calmer, more stable parents compared to the Brassic gang.

The lads are always up to scams, what's your favourite this series?


The lads stealing a bull was fun not because of the scam, but because of some of the things we got to do. We had this one day where we were trying to wank the bull and they have this kind of hose with a generator machine at the end of it. So that when it happens, obviously the bull ejaculates, it splashes all over us. So they had four or five of these hoses connected underneath this fake bull, and because we'd done the fat berg story in series one, we assumed it would be like that. It will just spray us in the face and we've already done it, but oh my God! It was insane. It was like a flood of thick, white cream. It tasted disgusting!

You all end up naked in that episode too!

That was the other fun, kind of crazy thing because we weren't actually meant to end up naked and I think on the day there was some suggestion that maybe getting naked would be more fun. I don't know why. I don't know who brought that up, but we all went for it like the crazy people we are anyway! I think those sort of experiences, a bit like the bull scene as well, they kind of just bond you. It's like a weird bonding element because everyone's sensitive to the fact that you're getting naked, but then you also kind of just have to deal with it because it is what it is. But thank God the sun came out because that was the one thing we were all stressed about, that it'd be cold. But the sun was shining, we were all just running around at the farm with our willies out!

Was there lots of muscle flexing on the day and showing off your bodies?

No, we're not that kind of crew. We were all more like, "Oh, why didn't he tell us? We would've shaved our pubes and we could've gone to the gym if we knew that we were going to be naked!" I think we were all just a bit more like, "Let's just get on with this and have a laugh." Rather than let's all do pushups and sit ups and all that kind of nonsense! This was more like a bunch of buffoon just getting naked!

Erin has got herself caught up with McCann, how do the lads feel when they find out just how much trouble she's in?


I feel like this season, there's the camaraderie and the fun but I think also there seems to be an underlying tension, that things are slowly becoming looser and they're losing control. Erin, for instance, being one of them who's taken leadership into her own hands and just getting on with it. The lads see what she's got herself caught up in and it makes them look at their own actions. They've seen a man get decapitated, they've done all this criminal stuff, and now that the characters are becoming bolder in their choices, I think there's the underlying tension for everyone, that, "Shit, we actually have done a lot of bad stuff." I don't think anyone's kind of going to say it out loud to Erin, but I think there's definitely a kind of tension as to how long they can keep doing all this stuff. They feel like maybe that their luck might be running out.

You're all going back for series four, how do you feel about that?


Really excited. I think we're really lucky and really privileged that Sky want to make a fourth season. I think it's quite unusual for, especially a British comedy, to get this many seasons. So I think we all feel very lucky and very grateful. I think it's down to the casting as well, I'd say. I think bringing this sort of particular group of actors together that they have and that we've all just bonded and gelled so well, has been a really nice thing.