Like The Office at its best, Daisy May and Charlie Cooperīs Cotswolds-set mockumentary remains hilarious, potent and exquisite right to the endThis Country is such a delicate, fragile thing that I always have the image of its sibling writers and stars, Daisy May and Charlie Cooper, cradling a baby bird. I find myself holding my breath at the start of every series, afraid that this time a hand will slip and crush it, or that their careful nurturing will take a wrong turn and their charge will fail to fledge and take wing.I have breathed a sigh of relief twice now, and I exhaled again as the third and final series of the BBC mockumentary about Cotswolds village residents Kerry Mucklowe and her cousin Kurtan began. How they do it, I donīt know - any more than you could say how Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais did it in the glory days of The Office, or Rufus Jones does it now with the hilarious, heartbreaking Home. But they pad as sure-footed in Adidas trainers as ever, along the lines separating hope from despair, portraiture from caricature, punching up from punching down, comedy from tragedy and a thousand other subtle divisions besides. Continue reading...
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