This Is England star Joe Gilgun, Ripper Street’s Damien Molony and Our Girl’s Michelle Keegan are to front a new working class comedy for Sky produced by Calamity Films, the company behind Renée Zellweger’s forthcoming Judy Garland biopic.

Brassic has been co-created by Gilgun and Danny Brocklehurst, the writer behind Netflix’s Michael C Hall-fronted thriller Safe.

It stars Gilgun as Vinnie, a man from the north of England with bipolar disorder and his best mate Dylan, played by Molony, whose girlfriend Erin, played by Keegan decides to leave town. Dylan is faced with the impossible decision between a fresh start with the love of his life or staying behind with his inseparable gang of mates that he can’t live without.

Tom Hanson, Aaron Heffernan, Ryan Sampson, Parth Thakerar also star in the Shameless-esque comedy, which starts production in September.

The show is exec produced by Calamity Films’ David Livingstone and Sky’s Jon Mountague along with Gilgun and Brocklehurst. Juliet Charlesworth is series producer, Daniel O’Hara and Jon Wright direct. It will launch in 2019 and will be sold international by ITV Studios Global Entertainment.

Sky’s Head of Comedy Mountague said it was an “authentic” and “hilarious” show. “Brassic is really different – sometimes raw, often remarkable, and always human. Fantastic scripts complemented by an amazing cast,” he added.

Gilgun said, “I’m truly humbled by the opportunity. We’ve got an amazing team of creators and watching it all take form has been very moving. Bipolar is a big part of my life. We want to show that you can have mental health issues and in some cases live a productive, exciting life, full of adventure. Our writer Danny Brocklehurst and my friend David Quayle have been invaluable in taking this journey with me. Embrace who you are, decide what to be and go be it.”

Brocklehurst added, “I couldn’t be more thrilled to be making Brassic with Sky One. This is a passion project for Joe and myself and we have collaborated every step of the way to create an outrageous, funny, stylistically bold show that brings to life a rarely seen northern working-class world. This is a big-hearted show about life at the sharp end of modern Britain.”