THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THIS COUNTRY, SEASON THREE FINALE
The Vicar has gone, Kurtan has a flat and Kerry… well, Kerry is the same as when we met her. The last- ever episode of This Country aired this week and, as with all the best comedies, left us wanting more. But for creators Daisy May Cooper and her brother Charlie (who play cousins Kerry and Kurtan Mucklowe and also cast their uncle, dad and friends as main characters in the show), it was time to end This Country - an eminently quotable mockumentary about the community in a small Cotswolds village with few opportunities. We spoke to Daisy about her next projects, a Mandy spin-off and those award show dresses.
Grazia: Why have you decided to end the show?
Daisy May Cooper: We ran out of ideas, basically, we actually had no ideas. Trying to write this final series was like coughing up rusty old nails and we just thought there’s only so much you can write about two people being really bored. We just felt like we’d moved on and losing Michael was really tough and it didn’t feel the same without him. I just felt like now is the time and I’m ready to move onto something new.
The first episode of series three was a tribute to Michael [Sleggs, their friend, who played their frenemy Slugs in the comedy and died aged 33 last July]. How was that?
I always think it was the weakest one for jokes, but we only had three weeks to write it and it was a real struggle to get done, but it was important to us we addressed it, because I think it would’ve been weird if we just said, ‘Oh Slugs has gone away on holiday and is never ever coming back…’
Did you know this was the final series the whole time you were writing it?
Yeah, I think we were ready to do it and it did feel natural build with the vicar leaving, that felt right. It didn’t make sense with him just staying in the village and he would’ve been offered other jobs and he was ready to get out of the village.
Things weren’t totally sewn up for everyone at the end, like in other comedy finales. Kerry for instance…
Kerry will be the same in 50 years' time, 10 years' time, she will just plod on, she will just live. I don’t quite know how. When her mum dies she’ll probably use the inheritance to buy Pot Noodles and probably eat that every night. What’s lovely about Kerry is she’s completely content with doing absolutely nothing and doesn’t see why anybody would want to pursue a career or better themselves and that should be kind of celebrated really, why not?
What kind of relationship do you have with Kerry?
I am just Kerry, if I could do what Kerry did and get paid to sit on the sofa and do nothing and watch Ghost Adventures, that would be perfect. I’m so lazy and Kerry is so lazy, so it’s so easy to do the character because so much of me comes out.
Will we see you do specials?
We’ve left it open-ended because we know we’ll need the money at some point. I’d love to do a film, but I’m going to see how the People Just Do Nothing film does, and if that makes money, then yeah I’m going to do it. It’s like a canary down the mine.
If there was going to be a spin-off with one character, who would it be?
It’s got to be Mandy, fucking hell. That woman. I’m just trying to think what we could do, where would I put her… What was lovely is we did originally write, and it never got made, them going away to Weston-Super-Mare for the weekend and Mandy just flags down the car and says ‘Where are you going?’ And she just gets in the car and you think this is going to be a really funny episode with Mandy and by the time they get there, she just goes really dark and really quiet, and they say ‘What’s wrong?’ and she just says, ‘I’ve got to go back to the village’. She’s just got to be the big fish in a small pond, she’s so unbelievably vulnerable and unsecure.
Do all characters have a full life like that in your head?
Absolutely, it’s like a criminal profile. I’ like to think we’d end up being criminal profilers if we weren’t doing this. Like, to the kind of ketchup they would buy, ASDA own brand, or what. It’s those tiny details that absolutely fascinate us and that’s why we loved doing the book. Mandy is terrified that people are going to out her for [being] the kind of coward that she actually is. And all this bravado and the lying is just a way of her of protecting herself.
Charlie and I really want to sit down and get our teeth into the next thing... We’re talking about something period, which might be quite fun.
Why do you think the show has been such a success?
I think so many people have grown up in small little communities where everyone is up in each other’s business. We get messages from people in like, Sweden and Australia, saying, ‘I grew up in a place just like this’ and it is just universal – those tiny groups of people living in each other’s pockets.
It’s interesting to see religion depicted in a modern comedy, why was the vicar and the church so important?
It’s all that there is. The only primary school in our area was CofE, so everything was about Jesus. So we just left thinking that’s fact – it was taught like it’s a history lesson. Then when it was the Darwinism thing at secondary school I was like, ‘Woah!’ It was such a shock. The vicar was originally meant to be a police officer, but we thought there’s something lovely about a vicar doing it, because morally, he feels like he has to save these people, who are completely unsavable. That’s why they can treat him the way they do and he always bounces back.
You intercut statistics about things like lack of funding in rural communities, what was the thinking behind them?
We don’t write those, our director and producer do. But all we write about is truth and the truth is that when you’re living in a village and you’re young, there aren’t many opportunities. We really struggled. I remember going to a job centre out of drama school and they were like, 'Well there’s a position for a DJ in Cheltenham or Father Christmas in Santas’s Grotto in a department store.' They were the only things available, so that’s where it comes from.
What’s next for you both?
Charlie and I really want to sit down and get our teeth into the next thing. We’d always write together. Because This Country was a mockumentary, we couldn’t really use known actors, so it would be great to write for well-known actors, to have a bigger production value. We’re talking about something period, which might be quite fun.
You’re well-known for your amazing awards ceremony dresses, like the one made from a Swindon shirt you wore to the BAFTAs in 2018…
It’s getting really stressful now, because I’ve got to top it every time and it’s also shameless attention-seeking. Totally! Because I know none of those photographers, when I go to those things, they don’t know who the hell I am and aren’t interested in me, so if I’m wearing something absolutely mental, I have to get photographed, that is the only reason.
When you wore the bin bag dress to the BAFTAs last year, everyone wondered if you were trying to make an important statement…
I did donate the money from that to a food bank, but it’s mainly being terrified I’ll dress up nice and end up in the Daily Mail’s worst dressed and then it can’t get any worse than that really.
What’s going to be next?
I think the next one will be massive. I’ve got an amazing woman called Crazy Costume Queen who designs some of the outfits. She actually works at a school and does the costumes for the nativity – let’s just say nobody goes poor in that school.
Did you love dressing as Kerry for the show?
It was absolutely great, because that’s what I wear usually. I’m so unfashionable, but I’m quite happy being unfashionable. The worst actually was series two – I was pregnant and we had to cover the bump, so I had to wear a fat suit on top of the bump and it was sweaty and it smelt and it was so constricting. Series three it was great, back in the trackies again.
The show is massively quotable – what do people shout at you in the street?
‘There’s no holes in your crumpets!’ ‘Tomato!’ Weirdly enough I’ve had loads of people cross the street to tell me they hate the show. I had this woman in the supermarket came up to me and say, 'Oh I really love the show, but all my family hate it, they really hate you!' I just want to do my shopping, please. It’s funny because it doesn’t matter how many people tell you they love the show, it’s those people that criticise it that sticks with you, that’s why I can’t go on Twitter…
You are hilarious on Instagram though...
Since having my daughter I just love it because anything she does, I’m such a proud stage mum and I want to put her out there. I went on it and then I got massive anxiety about it because I just thought, 'If I post something that really upsets people I might have a heart attack.' So I came off, then I thought, 'Do you know what, I just want to share what’s going on with people.'
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