This Country Series 3

[alan nagsworth]

Only started watching this show about two weeks ago but absolutely steamed through the lot as it's fucking brilliant, obviously. There have been more than a handful of times where a single line has had me in total hysterics, fuckin' uncontrollable laughter. I honestly can't remember the last time a show made me laugh quite like this. The dry imagination of Kurtan especially is absolutely sublime.

I see a lot of people out there in the world comparing it to The Office or saying it's "the best British sitcom since" The Office. While I'd argue that's a pretty broad stroke, I would add in the same breath that I can see why it has that acclaim, with its down to earth documentary style where a great deal of the characters, despite their foibles, are charming and loveable in their own way.

The Coopers have a superb knack of observing their old small town lives and creating something out of it that's inoffensively relatable and fucking hilariously funny at the same time. There's not a single speck of any "punching down" attitudes, it's written with love and care, and the unassuming day to day happenings just make it all the more believable.

I was thinking the other day that they could have quite easily followed suit from The League of Gentlemen or Car Share and chucked a load of daft puns and other wacky shite in the background, say on the church notice board or the names of shops, but they don't need to (and I'd argue Car Share never needed to do that, either). Much like early Trailer Park Boys, this show succeeds on the merit of its perfectly crafted characters against a very plain and simple background. TPB is obviously a lot more chaotic and dysfunctional, but you get my point. They could have made much more of a song and dance out of the series 3 finale but they didn't need to, it spoke for itself just fine. Wonderful telly.

[neveragain]

Great new deleted scene released earlier.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=7w_CuUBSu94

Part of how the show remained so tight must be its happiness to discard perfectly good (if not brilliant) material for the structural good of the episode.

[non capisco]

Great new deleted scene released earlier.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=7w_CuUBSu94

"I don't believe in willows or wisps" got me good.

[Bobloblawslawbomb]

Part of how the show remained so tight must be its happiness to discard perfectly good (if not brilliant) material for the structural good of the episode.

Thought the exact same thing when I saw this.

https://twitter.com/bbcthree/status/1244336522247245825?s=21

[olliebean]

Thought the exact same thing when I saw this.

https://twitter.com/bbcthree/status/1244336522247245825

FTFY

[Malcy]

Requested a whopping 52 million times over the 3 series on iPlayer.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2020/this-country-iplayer

[olliebean]

https://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2020/04/06/45811/we_will_definitely_do_a_this_country_christmas_special

The whole chat is worth a look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGUrmsMy9fI

[Pseudopath]

https://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2020/04/06/45811/we_will_definitely_do_a_this_country_christmas_special

The whole chat is worth a look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGUrmsMy9fI

Great news! Cheers olliebean.

[Malcy]

I thought it probably would come back for a special or two considering how popular it's turned out to be but good to know it's at least being seriously considered and not a "yeah well you never know" sort of thing.

[holyzombiejesus]

Been reading the last couple of weeks' Observers and saw this. Euan Ferguson is paid to write about television.

The best in homegrown humour, bar almost none, came to a wistful end. The second series of Daisy May Cooper and Charlie Cooper's This Country has delighted, angered, enthralled and baffled to an inordinate extent, and I'm heart-sorry to see it go..... To have identified that well-intentioned, dumb, thrawn, glorious strata of society is the legacy of the Cooper twins.

Just checked the age difference on wiki....

He is drop dead gorgeous and loads of people fancy him.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Cooper_(actor)

[Len Pounds]

Fans of useless trivia might be interested to know that Griff - the simple beast and Kerry's partner in crime at the recycling plant - can be glimpsed briefly in an earlier episode as a patient at A&E, while Kerry waits to have her leg examined having had it smashed to smithereens like a breadstick. Cheers.

[Huxleys Babkins]

The Beeb have uploaded Sue's home video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYoBnj0nhQ0

[olliebean]

The fake interlacing hurts my eyes...

Also in light of this video, can we revisit the "Why is Lee called Kurtan" question?

[Pink Gregory]

Script reason - they ran into someone in a pub who was telling tall tales always starting with 'me and my mate Kurtan, yeah...'

In-universe reason - hair curtains I guess?

[olliebean]

Yes but why then is Kurtan as a child in that video, without hair curtains, also called Kurtan?

[Blue Jam]

http://www.dosvideogames.com/play/kurtan

[holyzombiejesus]

Yes but why then is Kurtan as a child in that video, without hair curtains, also called Kurtan?

And what happened to his parents?

[olliebean]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p08clpkq/this-country-series-3-7-additional-scenes

Haven't watched this yet so not sure if these are the same deleted scenes that have already been on YouTube.

<edit> Just watched it. Brilliant stuff. It's a new set of deleted scenes, including a couple of Big Mandy scenes.

[pancreas]

.

[Puce Moment]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p08clpkq/this-country-series-3-7-additional-scenes

Haven't watched this yet so not sure if these are the same deleted scenes that have already been on YouTube.

<edit> Just watched it. Brilliant stuff. It's a new set of deleted scenes, including a couple of Big Mandy scenes.

Cheers!

[olliebean]

Yet another deleted scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH4xdqV8mwo

[chocolate teapot]

Yet another deleted scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH4xdqV8mwo

that was great

[olliebean]

And another: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncV4mmz1Qkk

[Blue Jam]

Daisy Cooper and Paul Cooper are on the latest edition of Celebrity Gogglebox. As are Shaun Ryder and Bez. Never watched it before but can't resist this one.

[olliebean]

Daisy Cooper and Paul Cooper are on the latest edition of Celebrity Gogglebox. As are Shaun Ryder and Bez. Never watched it before but can't resist this one.

I'm sorry, I tried, but I just can't. Skipped through the first unbearable 5 minutes of it and found less than 10 seconds of Daisy, then the website threw up a playback error. Too much like hard work for too little reward.

[Blue Jam]

My verdict after my first watch of Gogglebox is that most of it is quite obviously scripted and that's a bit annoying. Was alright as a mindless distraction.


I did like Daisy Cooper saying she can't wait until her second baby is born "so I can have a glass of wine, and then a bottle of wine, and then a few more bottles of wine".

Also Bez and Shaun. Probably won't bother again though.

[Blue Jam]

Intriguing news- the Cooper siblings now working on a period comedy:

https://metro.co.uk/2020/08/09/daisy-may-cooper-working-another-comedy-completely-different-country-13106489/

[Pink Gregory]

Ace, would love to see what their writing is like in a non camera-addressing format. 

[Bazooka]

I really hope they are in it too.

[olliebean]

Had to do a double take today when I saw that the Lib Dem's new deputy leader is Daisy Cooper...