Joe Gilgun

As Woody in This Is England (2007), Joseph Gilgun makes the gang look like company worth joining. His naturalistic ensemble playing lets the humour feel spontaneous, and Shane Meadows gives that warmth an important job: we have to understand why Shaun wants to belong. We were moved by that longing, because the group feels inviting enough for it to make sense. Gilgun is especially persuasive here because he never appears to be asking for a moment apart from the others.

Meadows is the key collaborator in this work, continuing with Gilgun on the This Is England television extensions. Gilgun has described learning from him to use an idea that occurs during filming, even if it is not scripted. That helps explain the conversational looseness: we can believe these people are responding to one another rather than waiting for their lines. We are less persuaded by the film's neatly arranged lessons, which can make the writing feel more calculated than the performances.

He joined Misfits (2009) in 2011 as Rudy Wade, taking that comic instinct into Howard Overman's superhero comedy. Rudy's conscience-clone turns a divided personality into separate people for Gilgun to play. It is a useful fit for an actor comfortable with humour and darker feeling, and a more conspicuous device than Meadows's naturalism. The series also supplies the caveat to our enthusiasm: these characters can become wearing. We recommend it because the writing usually makes their unpleasantness funny enough, not because spending time with them is always a pleasure.

His later roles include Cassidy in Preacher (2016), but the clearer change comes with Brassic (2019). As co-creator and star, playing Vinnie O'Neill, he has a more direct hand in work drawn from his own background. Its mixture of comedy and darker emotional material gives him room to use the qualities that made the earlier ensemble work persuasive. Start with Woody and Meadows, then try Rudy if prolonged exposure to unpleasant people does not spoil the jokes.