Despite its small-town Lancashire setting of hardscrabble pubs, lock-ups and secret wartime bunkers repurposed as marijuana farms, there has always been a touch of the surreal to Brassic. Over the course of five lairy seasons, the profane but sneakily profound comedy – centred on bipolar scallywag Vinnie (Joe Gilgun) and his found family of thrill-seekers and wheeler-dealers – has always been so much larger than life that it comes as no surprise that reality sometimes bursts at the seams. All the second-hand weed smoke probably helps.
So when A Very Brassic Christmas – the show’s first ever festive special – opens with a robed Joseph and heavily pregnant Mary seeking refuge for the night, the New Testament vibes are not all that discomfiting.
