By Alisha Keane

Brother/sister duo Daisy May and Charlie Coopers BAFTA winning mockumentary series This Country follows cousins Kerry and Kurtan (Lee) Mucklowe, unemployed twenty-somethings hanging about in a Cotswolds village lacking any sort of direction or future. As mentioned, the show is presented in a documentary style, with title pages at the beginning of each episode (and within them) stating that a team has been sent to film what life is like for young people in rural villages. This fictional team just follows the two on their day to day lives, within which nothing of substance ever really happens. For example, a whole episode in series one took place within a kitchen, the main plot point being Kerry and Kurtan fighting over who gets the top shelf in the oven to cook their frozen pizza and turkey dinosaurs. The show is currently in its third and apparently last series, and so far, the Coopers have not disappointed. Kurtan is as sensitive and over dramatic as ever, and Kerry well shes only loyal to herself, staffies, and the TV channel Dave.
One thing that has changed though, this time around, is that the CoopersÔÇÖ friend Michael Sleggs, ÔÇÿSlugsÔÇÖ in the show, sadly passed away in the time between this series and the last. The first episode of series three deals with this loss, and in true This Country fashion, they do not dwell on the sadness, the episode is a fitting, bittersweet tribute to a friend.

On paper, the idea of a TV series following two twenty-somethings living with their parents and their main source of entertainment being people watching in the village, going on their PlayStations, and reminiscing about school days should not work. It sounds boring and lacking any sort of entertainment value. This is where the incredible writing and performances by the Coopers comes in, as I would go so far as to say this is one of the best British comedies I have ever seen. The one-liners that come from the charactersÔÇÖ mouths, not to mention the impeccable delivery of them, make me cry with laughter. KurtanÔÇÖs Tinder woes, ÔÇ£I had to keep setting my radius further and further and further, then the radius got to France. And it just got silly by the endÔÇØ, and KerryÔÇÖs dad: ÔÇ£The last Thursday of every month I used to play pool with Fred West. I know he done some iffy things but as a builder he was top notchÔÇØ. One of the things that, in my opinion, drives the show is the hilarious niche references weaved within the script, be it the neighbourhood bully Big MandyÔÇÖs collection of Compare the Meerkats and her search for Baby Oleg (hands down one of my favourite scenes of television of all time) or her stalking of Hannah Spearitt from S Club 7, the Coopers are experts at inserting completely random, extremely British pop culture references. 

Somehow the documentary style adds extra comedic value as it is presented as real and is not sugar coated in any way, and the viewer questions just why this team have been sent to film this boring and mundane lifestyle. However, I think that the mundanity of the show is what makes it so funny, as itÔÇÖs just too real. Anyone who hails from a small village/town like the Mucklowes (and the Coopers themselves- this show was famously based on people they knew and their lifestyle growing up in the Cotswolds) would relate heavily to the protagonists, and in turn the oddball characters seen around the village. You feel sorry for them too, (a strikingly odd moment being KerryÔÇÖs dad telling her about how he wanted to suffocate her as a baby?) and you are really rooting for them to get out and make something of themselves. The general idea of hopelessness and pottering about is what makes the show what it is, and what makes it so relatable and funny to so many. In this way, This Country is comparable to comedy classic Seinfeld in the sense that it is a ÔÇ£show about nothingÔÇØ, the characters very much driving the plot and the success forward. 

This Country deserves to go down in history as a classic British sitcom, and once series three concludes the absence of Kerry and Kurtan in my life will be too much to handle. We can only hope for a spin off.