Will there be a fourth series of This Country?
Daisy May and Charlie Cooper play irrepressible cousins Kerry and Lee "Kurtan" Mucklowe in their Cotswolds-set BBC Three mockumentary
For two years there had been Kerry and Kurtan shaped holes in our lives, as series creators (and real-life siblings) Daisy May and Charlie Cooper took a hiatus from their BAFTA-winning BBC Three mockumentary.
The show's welcome return this spring had all the side-splitting dialogue, sharp observations, and unexpected pathos we'd come to expect from the show - but was it also the last chance we'd get to see the two offbeat cousins?
Will This Country return for another series?
This Country won't be returning again to our screens, according to both the show's stars and BBC Three.
Speaking at a press event ahead of series three, Daisy May Cooper confirmed, "This is the last series. I think we [Charlie and I] are ready for something new."
The death of co-star Michael Sleggs (who played Michael "Slugs" Slugette on the show) in July 2019 due to heart failure is also a reason why the show won't continue beyond a third series.
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Speaking to Metro, Charlie Cooper stated, "It was tough having to do it without him because he’s such a huge part of the show both on-screen and behind-the-scenes"
Both Daisy May and Charlie have been branching out recently - Daisy May starred in The Personal History of David Copperfield and new TV series Avenue 5, while Charlie starred in mini-series A Confession.
What happened in This Country series three?
*Warning: contains spoilers for This Country series three*
The third series was "in lots of ways... about the vicar [played by Paul Chahidi]," according to series producer Simon Mayhew Archer.
Reverend Francis Seaton, the parish vicar, has been a constant presence in the cousins' lives throughout the show. His constant attempts to keep them on the straight and narrow are often thwarted - perhaps never so memorably and hysterically than when, in series three, Kurtan and Kerry drove off in his car during a driving lesson, before returning just in the nick of time (and parking it the wrong way round) before the Reverend had noticed.
But the series ended on a bittersweet note when during the final episode Reverend Francis announced to the cousins that he was leaving the parish to take up a new, more challenging posting in Bristol. Although neither cousin reacted well to the news at first, by the end of the episode they'd reconciled themselves to the change.
There was also a tribute to Michael "Slugs" Slugette, and the still-ongoing mystery of who played Kurtan's disapproving nan - the actor's face was pixellated out, but we know from director Tom George that they're a Hollywood A-Lister...
Finally, we learnt that Kerry has never watched the 'documentary' about her and Kurtan, declaring that it's not really her "thing". Well, no disrespect towards Kerry's viewing habits, but This Country has definitely been ours.
