'Brassic' star Michelle Keegan: new comedy flips "grimy" perception of northern British working class

Actress stars in new comedy with This Is England’s Joe Gilgun

Michelle Keegan has spoken about how Brassic puts a “positive light” on the working class of northern Britain.

Keegan, who portrays young mum Erin in the comedy about “a group of working-class friends finding unconventional ways to win at life in northern suburbia”, told NME that it’s not all doom-and-gloom.

“I think what they’ve done – really cleverly done as well – is normally when you think of the working class northern area, you think it’s quite negative,” Keegan said. “You think it’s grimy, you think it’s dark, you think it’s gloomy. Where[as] this show sort of lifts that and it’s shown in a really positive light, it’s really funny, and you get amazing characters from these areas.”

Sky’s Brassic is co-created by This Is England actor Joe Gilgun and Bafta-winning writer Danny Brocklehurst.

Gilgun portrays Vinnie, a man from Lancashire who has bipolar disorder. Damien Molony plays his best friend Dylan. The pair have spent their whole lives living in the same place.

(L-R) Joseph Gilgun, Michelle Keegan and Damien Molony attend the preview of Sky original ‘Brassic’ (Photo by David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Sky)

Sky writes of the show: “These lads have dealt, scammed, bribed and conned their way through adolescence, but now, on the brink of adulthood, their dealing and stealing is catching up with them and a whole load of trouble is heading their way. Like a carefully stacked tower of cards, what happens if one of them is knocked down or, worse, removed from the pack entirely?” [via RadioTimes].