How has it been filming Series 3 in what have been unprecedented circumstances?


I mean, I'll say this. I literally was in great shape when we started filming Brassic, and then I got chunky in lockdown and then I got in great shape again over the course of us filming again. It's been a fucking rollercoaster! To start with it was really quite dispiriting to see how difficult it was going to be to film but at the same, you feel a real sense of, "We're going to do this in spite of everything," mentality kick in. It felt absolutely ridiculous to try and make a TV series in the middle of a pandemic, but we were determined. And we did it, god knows how, but we did!

Did it bring you closer as a team having to not only film but also be each other's support system at a time when you couldn't go home?


I'd say we were already really close but it has become a new level. I now feel we are actual, genuine family, bonded by blood, because you feel like you've been in the trenches or something when you've filmed a series during a pandemic. We were going home to flats that were locked down in a city where we didn't know anyone and then going on set in the middle of the night in the rain, it was just very intense, but we only had each other to rely on. I feel bonded by blood now with these guys and our crew. Our crew are the toughest team out there, it was like they were on a sort of medieval warship. They're those kind of people, the toughest, they are heroic, honestly. Their job is way, way harder than ours. Us actors are talking shit all the time, but they are focused, getting it done, turning up to work with a smile on their face every day. They are next level, honestly. We couldn't have done it without their determination.

It's been the same crew since the start so you are a Brassic family off screen as well as on!


Yeah. I think everyone is like, "Well, we're doing this one because we love this particular show, this particular job." The chat on the set and the jokes, are just constant. It's not like any other job that I've ever done in that respect. I could give you an impression of every single crew member now. Everyone's got their thing that they're known for, it's how close we've all become and I think it's part of our success.

When you got the scripts through for this series, what was your first reaction?


It felt like we'd kicked it up a notch in terms of the action. To the point where I have had moments of brief Tom Cruisery! I briefly felt like a very miniature Tom Cruise. I mean, he's miniature enough, but I felt like a miniature Tom Cruise. There was one bit where, I kid you not, we were in Wales, the sun was shining, we're out at sea on a sailing boat that's speeding away through the ocean, and on the top of the boat, me and Joe are having this huge wrestling fight, throwing each other about. I understand why Tom Cruise is just an intense, weird little man about doing all his own stunts, because it just felt so ridiculously exciting! That is a memory that is etched on my brain until I go to the grave. It was incredible. It was like, bright blue skies, sun's glistening off the waves. We're skipping over all these waves in this boat, and we're throwing each other around the top of it. I mean, I dislocated my knee. And later in the shoot, I actually broke my foot as well. I mean, that's very Tom Cruise, isn't it? Breaking something while filming!

How did you break your foot?

Well, imagine this, right. So we do all that fighting on the boat. We did all the stunts, things like that. I went home and I fell over in the kitchen, on the floor. So it was just a freak accident. So boring! I mean, I wish it was something more exciting. I broke my metatarsal bone in two places and for about two months I had to wear a massive boot. So you'll notice that some shots, I'm conspicuously stood behind a bin, or cropped to just above the knee, or for some mysterious reason, Tommo just doesn't move when everyone else does!

The boat scene sounds epic though!

I'd say it went fun, fun, fun, then horrible because everyone was going to be sick and then it was fun again. We had to film scenes down in the hull and it was just gut-wrenchingly nauseating. So that was difficult. We were all feeling a bit green but little Jude, who plays Tyler, had sea sickness really bad and it's horrible to see a little kid be sick. So we were all teaching him songs and singing along with him. I remember doing jokes from The Mighty Boosh with him, and keeping him entertained so he didn't think about it!

How did you entertain each other between takes when you're stuck on a boat?


Well, Michelle Keegan loves a quiz. Not so great at answering the actual quiz questions, bless her. Trivia is not her strong point, but yeah, absolutely loves to be the quizmaster, so if there's anyone looking to cast a new Pointless or Family Fortunes, you want to look to Michelle Keegan. But just don't have her on your pub quiz team, because she's useless!

There are big changes for Tommo this series as he's lost control of the Rat & Cutter. How does he feels about relinquishing control of his much loved strip club?


Oh, really bad. So Tommo goes through all the rings of hell and is a kind of completely broken man, at one point, he's so broken that he's just crying in every other scene and abusing the drugs to keep him afloat. Then he goes to the other side of it. So there's a big story arc, from ego maniac to broken man, to on his way back up again.

He put his mark on the Rat & Cutter, what does he think of what Erin's done with the place?


Well, he briefly plots to kill her! You don't cross a man like Tommo, I suppose. She makes it into a respectable establishment and he just wants this kind of sleazy joint, so, you know, it's going to be a war, he wants the boobs and all the stripping and she doesn't!

Fans are going to see the lads forced to pleasure a bull, what is going on?


Well, as it turns out, bull semen has a hefty price tag and this is actually true. It does. I researched it! Particularly some prize bulls. So, obviously, if you find out there's a prize bull nearby, as the boys do, you decide to go and manually collect said semen.

Is Tommo in the heart of the action, shall we say?

You'll see that I carefully position myself to one side so that I don't receive very much of it, because I've been around the block a few times now, I know how these things work. It's all very funny in that moment, you're getting covered in this bull spluge, but then just wait, two weeks later, when every single day you're going to work, they're covering you with it so that you can do the pick up shots, like, "No, no, no." So all my years doing those kinds of scenes, like on Plebs, means I'm clued up! I know how to duck the bull splurge!

The same episode sees you all strip completely naked, what was that like?


Filming that naked scene, there was a whole day naked, right? And I was really not sure about it beforehand, because I was like, "It's going to be cold. It's going to be..." I'm a moany old bastard because I've been doing it for so long. But then, I would say, it was the single most fun day I've ever had on a TV set. It was just a load of boys running around a farm naked with pigs everywhere, just cackling our heads off because it was just so unbelievably stupid that I'm never going to forget it.

In your opinion, who has the best Brassic body?

I mean, Damian, it's insane, the man is shredded to within an inch of his life. He's a dad of two and then takes his clothes off and you go, "Oh yeah. I realise that you haven't eaten carbs for three weeks!" He's just ripped. Absolutely ripped.

You might have missed most of the bull semen, but you do get covered in pee...


Yeah, I won't reveal why but we were basically drenched in fake piss for an afternoon. A solid afternoon. Sometimes these scenes are really exciting for an actor, because you have to all work as a group together to get the choreography and the timing and everything perfect in one shot. So we're in a Rolls Royce, hurtling down these country roads, we're all getting covered in this bottle of piss. You can only do so many resets, so you've got to keep doing it and doing it and doing it. That actually was another really memorable day. It was brilliant. We actually had such a good time doing that.

Fans will have seen a social media picture of you on set with a weird sex doll, what was going on?


Yeah. Me and Alison in the woods. It's a repulsive thing, that, but that's very Brassic, isn't it? So Tommo's connections in the sex toy world industry are extensive and he gets his hands on a full sized sex doll but needs someone to test drive it. He tries to palm it off on Vinnie, but no-one will take him up on the offer, basically. It's honestly the weirdest thing with stretchy toes. We spent a lot of time just pulling its nose and stuff. It's just fascinating. It's really weird. Also, far too small. It's kind of disturbing. It just looks creepy as hell. So, so weird.

Are there any other scenes during filming that will really stick with you forever?


There have been moments when we've been filming things in such impossibly beautiful scenarios, like on top of the moors in Lancashire, the sun was shining and you just feel really grateful, basically, to be doing it at all. For that moment, you just realise how lucky you are to be in a show you love and actually working when everyone's stuck indoors. No-one's doing anything and we're out having these mad adventures, I just feel really grateful about it.

The show is so loved by viewers, what sort of reaction do you get on the street?


Well, a policewoman marched up to me the other day when we were filming and I immediately got a bit nervous and she went, "Can I have a photo because my nan fancies you!" I was like, "Okay. A, amazing you want a photo of me when you're on duty, and B, that your nan fancies me? Cool. I'm cool with that. Great." It did slightly baffle me her nan fancies me as Tommo! Kinky nans of the nation, unite. I'm all about older people reclaiming their sexuality. I think that's absolutely brilliant!

You must be really proud of what you've all created as the show has become so successful?

Actually hugely proud of it. It feels like it's quite an epic show, and it feels like a big ambitious ask, basically, of a channel and a production of a group of people to make, because you don't see shows that are fully funny and fully dramatic mixed together. It does it in this huge cinematic way, with everything under the sun thrown at it, from fights on top of boats to huge explosions and car chases and loose pythons and all of that sort of thing, so I feel unusually proud of it, really. And also, it just looks fucking beautiful. They managed to make it look really sort of sumptuous and sexy, which I think is a really impressive thing.

Looking ahead to series four, what would you like to happen to Tommo?


Well, after being down for so long, I want Tommo to be back on his feet again and go up in the world again. I really want to see Tommo's parents because we've been talking about it on set. How hilarious would it be to see these two suburban, beige individuals who've somehow spawned this absolute freak, egotistical monster? I'd really like to see that!