BACK TO THE COUNTRY
This Country, the Bafta-winning comedy which follows hapless cousins causing trivial trouble in their Cotswolds village, is back for a one-off special. Charlie Cooper, one of the show’s writers and stars, talks to Georgia Humphreys about what fans can exp
If you’ve not watched This Country, you’re missing out. Bafta-winning, and notching up millions of BBC iplayer requests to date, it’s already gained a serious cult following following two series. Now, it’s returning to BBC Three and then BBC One with a new one-off special, which once again documents the lives of young cousins, Kerry and Lee ‘Kurtan’ Mucklowe as they interact with the other residents of their claustrophobic Cotswolds village. Oh and that’s not all, in 2019 there will be another six episodes hitting our screens. Here’s everything you need to know from the show’s co-creator and star, 28-year-old Charlie Cooper.
ONE-OFF RETURN
fans will know the second series of This Country, which is also written by Charlie’s sister Daisy May (who plays Kerry), ended on a cliffhanger. But this wasn’t always the plan. “It was written that we resolved what happened in that [final] episode and that Martin [Kerry’s Dad] went to prison and Kerry testified against him,” says Cirencester-born Charlie, who so brilliantly plays Kurtan. “And I think we got into the edit and we felt it had resolved too quickly. “You’re so invested in the story and you almost see it coming so I think it was the perfect reason to do a special and explain the aftermath in that.” Charlie quips another reason for the special was that 32-year-old Daisy, who wasn’t present at the screening of the episode In London, has recently had a baby. “We thought we would keep the ball rolling, do a special and then do a third series next year,” he elaborates.
SOURCE MATERIAL
This Country came about because Daisy and Charlie were both living at home in Gloucestershire, frustrated and not really knowing what to do with themselves. Now their lives have totally changed, the programme having won double 2018 Bafta TV Awards, scooping best comedy programme and best female comedy performance for creator Daisy May Cooper - so is it harder to find inspiration for the show? “I still live there now, it’s enough frustration to last a lifetime,” jokes Charlie. “It’s got such strong identity, you don’t realise until you come to London or go anywhere else, or live anywhere else. So no, we are always writing down ideas. “We’ve still got a lot of that anger left, and a lot of people to throw under the bus.” The pair have never hidden the fact that a lot of it is based on real life. Discussing their costumes, Charlie says: “All of the characters are based on truth and people we know, people we’ve bumped into in the past, so you sort of immediately know what they’re going to wear and stuff like that. A lot of Kurtan’s stuff was found in charity shops around Cirencester. “But yeah, I loved doing that, going into the detail and stuff and the backstories of the characters.”
TEAM EFFORT
Surely one of the reasons that the series has been such a hit is that you can’t fake 30 years of togetherness and sibling rivalry. And Charlie says his and Daisy’s process of writing as a team remains exactly the same. “It’s chaos really,” he admits. “There were a lot of tears writing the special, from both me and Daisy. “There’s a lot of going round in circles, there’s no real method. Somehow it gets done.” filming has been even more of a family affair at times because their father, Paul Cooper, plays Martin, who has become quite the villainous character. “After the second series, he thought that he was going to get attacked in the street,” Charlie reveals. “I was like, ‘No one knows who you are!’” Of whether we can expect to see more of Paul on screen in the future, he teases: “We will see what happens. He’s always suggesting storylines for his character, it’s really annoying.”
THE FUTURE
As before, the special sees a camera crew follow Kerry and Kurtan as they go about their, well, pretty mundane lives, causing trivial trouble which will make you laugh out loud. But interestingly, Charlie says the mockumentary style wasn’t what they intended originally, “because of stuff like The Office, and you don’t want to be categorised into that genre of shows”. “We wanted to do something that was real and authentic and naturalistic, and we were inspired by a lot of documentaries,” reasons the amiable actor. “And then Simon [Mayhew-archer, This Country producer], when we went to talk about the show we wanted to create, he was the one to suggest it being a mockumentary. And, of course it makes sense, because it’s the most real it can be in that format.” Obviously, we know there definitely six more episodes lined up after the special. But down-to-earth Charlie is realistic about where he sees the show heading. “You never want to get to a point where you’re struggling, and you’re flogging a dead horse,” he says. “Until we start writing the third series... We’ll know if there’s more in it after that.”