This Country

This Country
Genre	Sitcom Mockumentary
Created by	Daisy May Cooper Charlie Cooper
Written by	Daisy May Cooper Charlie Cooper
Directed by	Tom George
Starring	Daisy May Cooper Charlie Cooper
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of series	3
No. of episodes	19
Production
Executive producer	Stephen McCrum
Producer	Simon Mayhew-Archer
Editor	Craig Harbour
Running time	21–31minutes
Production company	BBC Studios
Original release
Network	BBC Three
Release	8 February 2017 (2017-02-08) – 23 March 2020 (2020-03-23)

This Country is a British mockumentary sitcom, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Three on 8 February 2017. Created by, written by and starring siblings Daisy May Cooper and Charlie Cooper and directed by Tom George, the series focuses on the day-to-day lives of two cousins living in a small village in the Cotswolds. The programme includes themes of social clumsiness, the trivialities of human behaviour, the eccentricities of living in rural England, and the boredom and social isolation of young people in small communities. The programme shows relatable and comedic situations in every episode.

The Cooper siblings play the central characters, cousins Kerry and Lee "Kurtan" Mucklowe. Much of the series revolves around their unlikely friendship with the local vicar, Rev. Francis Seaton, played by Paul Chahidi. The Coopers' father, Paul Cooper, plays Kerry's father Martin Mucklowe; their uncle, Trevor Cooper, plays local man and antagonist Len Clifton. Although credited to "Ivy Woodcock", the voice of Sue Mucklowe – Kerry's mother, never seen on screen – is provided by Daisy May.

Across the three series and the special, This Country received more than 52 million BBC iPlayer requests, and was later added to the platform shortly after its end.

Cast

Origins

The Coopers' first television appearance in character as the Mucklowes was in 2016, on the BBC Three show Live from the BBC.

Production

The series was filmed on location in and around the small town of Northleach. Daisy Cooper said, "All the material is based around stuff that happens in Cirencester, but when we went to the channel they thought that Cirencester was a bit too big and Northleach is a smaller village, and sort of isolates the characters a bit more. Makes them more claustrophobic." The location used for exterior shots of Kerry's house is at 16 Fortey Road in Northleach.

Filming for the first series began in September 2016 and finished three weeks later. A second series was quickly confirmed, with filming taking place over the summer of 2017 and its first episode being released on 26 February 2018. A one-off special episode, forming an epilogue to the second series, was filmed over the summer of 2018 and broadcast in October that year.

On 30 May 2019, actor Michael Sleggs announced that he was suffering from heart issues and did not have long to live. He died 40 days later at the age of 33. The third and final series was filmed from August to October 2019, and broadcast from February to March 2020.

Episodes

Reception

This Country received positive reviews from critics. Stuart Heritage, for The Guardian, described it as a "perfectly observed" comedy, and wrote: "I found myself rewinding entire scenes because I was too busy howling with laughter to hear what was going on." Sean O'Grady, for The Independent, wrote: "It isn't very often that I am able to recommend something because it made me weep tears of laughter, but I am happy and heartened to say that the latest BBC mockumentary, This Country, is sublime enough to have lifted my spirits heavenwards... [It has] an uneasily well-observed quality that raises the comedic genre almost to an art form." Rupert Hawksley, for The Daily Telegraph, wrote: "It is, by some distance, the funniest thing on television at the moment." Mike McCahill, for Reader's Digest, described the programme as an "increasingly cherishable mockumentary" and essential viewing, observing that "[the] Coopers have created an entire universe in a handful of episodes." Arts critic Bruce Dessau concluded: "It might have well-used stylistic elements of both The Office and People Just Do Nothing about it, but it is sharply-written and deftly performed [and] stays just on the right side of cliché. And most importantly both Kerry and Lee are richly comic."

Awards

Home video releases

All three series of This Country and the Aftermath Special have been released in Regions 2 both individually and in box sets.

Adaptation

On 4 December 2019, an American adaptation of the series was announced by Fox, developed by Jenny Bicks and directed by Paul Feig. On 30 January 2020, it was announced that the production had been given a pilot order. On 30 October, it was announced that the production had been given a series order and was scheduled for premiere in the 2021–22 television season. On 17 May 2021, it was announced that the title of the American series had been changed from This Country to Welcome to Flatch.

Welcome to Flatch premiered on 17 March 2022 and ran until 2 February 2023, spanning two seasons. The series was cancelled in October 2023.

Books

in October 2019 a tie-in book, entitled This Is This Country: The official book of the BAFTA award-winning show, was published.