Brassic, series 5, review: raucous Northern gem is the funniest show you're not watching

So, is he or isn’t he? Dead, that is. If you’ve been hanging on since the end of Brassic’s (Sky Max) season four finale to find out exactly what became of Dylan (Damien Molony), as two masked thugs set about him on a dark and dangerous night, the fifth season’s opener couldn’t come soon enough.

And… the cheeky beggars left us hanging. Clues were scattered around, a “missing” poster on a lamppost, bit-part characters popping up to gurn “Dead, I’m ‘earing – got in over ‘is ‘ead.”. But as for facts: sweet nothing.

Apologies if this is clear as mud, but if you’re jumping aboard Brassic now, you’ve got an awful lot of catching up to do. I’d feel pretty envious of that because, though Brassic gets nominated for plenty of awards, it rarely wins. Which is daft because this is a jewel of a show: focused around the harem scarem – usually illegal – antics of bipolar anti-hero Vinnie (co-creator Joe Gilgun) and his gang of wise-cracking ne’er do wells in the fictional northern town of Hawley, it bowls along, high on a mix of adrenaline thrills and comic capery. It’s that rare beast, a comedy-drama that’s both funny and dramatic.

But back to Dylan, for four series the sensible glue that held the impeccably soundtracked craziness together. How would the Brassic gang dynamic survive without its stabilising force?

Pretty well, as it happens. Yes, there was a Dylan-shaped hole somewhere in the middle of a typically rambunctious series opener, but such is the animal energy which powers Brassic’s motor, we never fell down it. There was scarcely time for it, what with Lee Mack, in a nice bit of stunt casting, as a lorry driver beset by financial woes, leading the gang in a merry dance.

This set-up provided a typically tongue-in-cheek dig at the perils of modern gambling (“All the apps, it’s too easy innit?” – yes, this show is on Sky…) and a jumping-off point for a helter skelter plot which found room for a Bullseye theme night, a bonkers birth and a running gag about Vinnie’s, ahem, endowment that was deliciously near the knuckle.

Farce was the order of the day, with emotional backstories put on a back burner and one-liner maestro Gilgun, on prime form, ruling the roost with chaotic aplomb, upstaged only by a brief cameo from Dominic West’s joint-toking shrink. Dylan, you were missed… but not too much.