‘School bullies inspired me to create Kerry’
DAISY May-Cooper says This Country character Kerry Mucklowe is based on the bullies she came across growing up in the Cotswolds.
In her new book that looks set to be a Christmas bestseller she says she was inspired by the bullies she knew at school.
The Cotswolds comic has released an extract from her forthcoming book Don’t Laugh It Will Only Encourage Her which tells the full story of how she and her brother Charlie went from cleaners to Baftawinning stars.
And in the extract published in the Guardian she explains in detail how they came to develop Kerry and Kurtan in This Country, a mockumentary about life in the Cotswolds.
“I started writing just to make Charlie laugh,” she says about her younger brother who starred with her in the show.
“I created a character called Kerry. She was like so many girls from around where we lived, and inspired by the school bullies from when I was at Deer Park secondary.
“She was oafish and selfish, but underneath it all she had a big heart.”
It’s not the first time Kerry has referred to her days at the school where her father Paul once worked and in 2017 one of the first This Country episodes featured her opening a bottle of champagne after being told her woodwork teacher Mr Perkins had died.
In the wide-ranging interview to accompany the extract she spoke about her love of Cirencester, her poverty-stricken past and confirmed she has split up with her husband Will Weston.
She explains to Rebecca Nicholson of the Guardian that she has a hangover because she had been out the night before and drunkenly “nattered” through a private birthday party performance by Elton John.
The Cirencester comic said she was talking to Michael McIntyre at David Walliams’ 50th birthday party and only realised the Rocket Man was giving an exclusive performance when John Bishop picked up his chair and moved it away from her.
“I didn’t realise he was on stage! I was just nattering away,” she admitted.
“I thought, surely, they’re just playing music through the speakers?”
But even though it sounds glamorous mingling with the stars, she says she only goes to awards ceremonies or showbiz parties if she has a plusone that she wants to show off to.
Brother Charlie, who went camping rather than pick up their last award, refuses point blank.
“He’s got a really good-looking girlfriend, he’s bought himself a lovely house in Stroud , and he never replies to any of my text messages,” she told the interviewer.
Daisy May has never made a secret of the fact that life was grim before her and Charlie finally found fame as Kerry and Kurtan Mucklowe and says it was bad she can identify with the family in the Oscar-winning film Parasite.
She admits she “went nuts” and was “living like Rockefeller” when she first started earning money and although she hasn’t bought a house of her own, she and her brother have helped out family.
“We’ve managed to sort everybody out. Do you know how amazing that is?” she tells the interviewer.
When she does finally buy a home the 35-year-old will not be moving far from Cirencester where she grew up with mum Gillian and dad Paul, who she credits with her success because they did not nag her to give up on her dreams.
“I don’t want to be anywhere else on earth,” she said.
“I know everyone there from school. The duck race. It sounds like I’m just saying it to be quirky, but it is the best event I’ve ever attended. It’s amazing.”
She loves the fact that local people aren’t impressed by her success.
“Even if I’m trying to book a table at a local pub, I drop my name and they do not care. It’s great,” she said.
She confirmed the split with husband Will who she met on Tinder in 2015 and married in 2019.
“He’s an amazing man, but we’re just not compatible,” is all she will say about the father of her two children, three-year-old Pip and oneyear-old Jack.
The US version of This Country, called Welcome to Flatch, is coming out soon and she eventually hopes to “rinse” America like James Corden.