Brassic's Ryan Sampson on the hit Sky TV show's Christmas special and series six

The quirky, comic genius from Masbrough was said by one national newspaper to be on the verge of ending his association with the crazy, lawbreaking gang that also features Joseph Gilgun and Michelle Keegan.Sampson, who is a former pupil of Anston Brook Primary School and Wales High School, was reportedly voicing a “reluctance to continue” in the hit show.The 37-year-old actor does have other irons in the fire.He has been commissioned by Sky to write and perform Mr Bigstuff, a series in which Ryan and Danny Dyer play estranged brothers trying to patch up a sibling rivalry.It was due to be aired this year but is still in production stages and will now be broadcast in 2024.However, his other obligations are not getting in the way of his commitment to award-winning Brassic - set in the fictional Lancashire town of Hawley - and he is not leaving as co-star Damien Molony did after season four.A Sky TV source told the Advertiser that Ryan will first appear in a Christmas special for Brassic this year.It is called A Very Brassic Christmas and guest stars Imelda Staunton and Greg Davies.“Ryan is currently filming season six so is definitely still in the gang,” Sky revealed.The son of Rotherham is looking forward to the airing of the Christmas special.In his typically earthy manner, he said: “There’s going to be tinsel and tinnies. It’s going to be full of festive cheer but at one point everything’s going to absolutely go to s**t.”He said the character Farmer Jim (played by Steve Evets) would get his moment to shine as “the grossest Santa imaginable”.Away from Brassic, Ryan, who describes himself these days as a “particularly short gay dude”, has given an insight into his school years.He told one podcast: “When I was between the ages of 11 and 16 I did not have one single friend in the world.“I was an absolute social outcast. To the extent that I used to walk around the perimeter of the school.“On a lunch break, I could do two and a half laps. It was a very unfriendly environment to little Ryan.”He said at 13, he looked like a “regional bank manager” in appearance.

Ryan also discussed the merits of his Religious Education teacher who had been “lovely to me”.However one day in class, she said that: “God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.”Instantly: “The whole class erupts into raucous, homophobic laughter and they all point at me.“It was a deeply traumatic memory.”Life in a 1990s school obviously left a scar on Ryan.“Almost anything went in schools. The fact you had to go in the showers completely naked, in one big mass shower, with a PE teacher watching you...what was happening in the 90s that they thought this was acceptable?”He also recalled going on a school trip to school, where he was bitten on the chest...by a horse.He said it was traumatic that one of his teachers had to be there (because he was a minor) when the doctor gave him a tetanus shot “in the bum” as he bent over a table.Sounds like a scene from Brassic...

A Very Brassic Christmas will be available on Sky Max and streaming service NOW over the Christmas period.https://www.listennotes.com/top-podcasts/ryan-sampson/--