\n Since then, however, the pair have faced serious competition from siblings Daisy May and Charlie Cooper.\n<\/p>\n
\n Bursting onto TV screens that year with the first series of BBC mockumentary sitcom This Country – focused on cousins Kerry and Kurtan Mucklowe and their life in a quiet Cotswold village – the pair received critical acclaim and cemented themselves as a shining example of the region\u2019s young talent.\n<\/p>\n
\n Two additional series of the comedy followed, where the pair cemented themselves perhaps as Swindon Town Football Club’s most famous fans, as did numerous awards including three BAFTAs.\n<\/p>\n
\n Having grown up near Cirencester, I first came across the Coopers in a TV guide preview of series one of This Country while studying at university.\n<\/p>\n
\n Daisy May and Charlie Cooper’s NightWatch sees the pair spend the night at several historic and spooky locations in the UK (Image: BBC\/So Humble\/Roger Keller)\n<\/p>\n
\n From that piece alone, I was struck by how tied the programme was to Gloucestershire, with humour derived from knowledge that could have only come from an insider\u2019s perspective of the area. I watched the show – featuring references to Tesco Metros, enemies in Bourton-on-the-Water and the old Halfords in Stroud – in my university house.\n<\/p>\n
\n By the time the third series was about to air in early 2020 and I was back home, I was one of the people excitedly getting a sneak peek at the episodes at a premiere screening and Q&A at Cirencester\u2019s Bingham Hall.\n<\/p>\n
\n I was therefore delighted when I was given the opportunity to interview Daisy May and Charlie, who now live near Stroud and Cirencester respectively, myself ahead of a sold-out Halloween episode screening and Q&A for their new BBC series, Daisy May and Charlie Cooper’s NightWatch, at Bingham Hall on Friday, October 31, as part of Cirencester History Festival.\n<\/p>\n
\n The festival, which began on Friday, October 24 and which Charlie is an ambassador for this year, celebrates local, national and global history in Cirencester, with talks, activities and family events and a variety of acclaimed speakers.\n<\/p>\n
\n Daisy May and Charlie Cooper’s NightWatch sees the pair spend the night at several historic and spooky locations in the UK (Image: BBC\/So Humble\/Roger Keller)\n<\/p>\n
\n It\u2019s an ideal setting to delve into the siblings\u2019 new comedy-documentary, which sees them spend the night at several historic and spooky locations in the UK, including in an episode at Gloucester\u2019s old prison, which will be shown at the screening. Most Haunted, eat your heart out!\n<\/p>\n
\n We meet over Zoom on an autumn morning early in October. The pair are sat together in the same room – ironic given that Charlie jokes that the siblings \u201creconnected doing the series\u2026 and then have since disconnected\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cReally, this show is about our relationship,\u201d he tells me.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cAnd how toxic it is!\u201d Daisy May cuts in jokily.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt\u2019s that thing where no matter how old you are and how many kids you have, in your sibling\u2019s eyes, you never change from as you were when you were kids,\u201d Charlie says.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cYou just go straight back to being 12 years old and arguing over a PlayStation,\u201d Daisy notes.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cYeah, totally,\u201d Charlie replies. \u201cAnd the other one knows the other\u2019s darkest secrets.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWhat do you mean by that?\u201d Daisy quizzes him.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWell, I’ve got a lot of s*** on you, mate,\u201d Charlie retorts, younger sibling style. \u201cWhen you meet new people when you get older, you can try and put a front on or act how you want to be perceived, but that never happens with a sibling.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n At this point, Daisy recalls how Charlie once \u2018had a tantrum because his Scalextric wouldn’t work on Christmas morning\u2019.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cOk, thank you!\u201d he responds.\n<\/p>\n
\n More seriously, Daisy says: \u201cI think we\u2019d always wanted to do something with the paranormal.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cYeah,\u201d Charlie replies. \u201cI mean, we’ve been obsessed with it for years and years.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThis is the first thing we\u2019ve done together since This Country,\u201d Daisy says. \u201cIt was always like: \u2018What’s going to be the first project we do together after This Country?\u2019, and it just seemed like the perfect idea. It was really fun. I don\u2019t want you to hear this,\u201d she tells Charlie, \u201cbut it was very cathartic to spend time with you.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n For the Coopers, the paranormal has been a passion since childhood, long before Charlie\u2019s 2024 folklore documentary series Charlie Cooper\u2019s Myth Country and Daisy\u2019s 2024 book Hexy B****: Tales from My Life, the Afterlife, and Beyond. Though Charlie has never seen a ghost himself, he says the pair\u2019s grandfather did.\n<\/p>\n
\n Daisy May and Charlie Cooper’s NightWatch sees the pair spend the night at several historic and spooky locations in the UK (Image: BBC\/So Humble\/Roger Keller)\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cOur grandad was a doctor, and he was really matter of fact,\u201d he says. \u201cHe said he saw this sort of peasant type walking down this alleyway by his house and the neighbours had seen the same thing in years gone back.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Daisy has also seen a ghost, but it was more recently – in fact, it was in a newbuild house she was living at in South Cerney. \u201cI saw a pair of disembodied legs – they were child’s legs wearing white PE shorts,\u201d she explains. \u201cThe ghost\u2019s torso kind of blended into the rest of the room, and it ran around the bed and then completely vanished. My son\u2019s eyes kind of followed it round the room, and he would only have been about one at that time.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Recently released on iPlayer, NightWatch covers a range of places across the UK, from the Highlands of Scotland and Chillingham Castle in Northumberland to Carew Castle in Pembrokeshire in Wales. So what made the siblings want to host a screening for the programme in Cirencester?\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe love Cirencester,\u201d Daisy stresses. \u201cThis is where we grew up. We\u2019re so rooted here.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe\u2019re really a product of Cirencester,\u201d Charlie adds. \u201cTo be able to do a screening in Ciren means a lot to us. I think the people of Cirencester should be some of the people that see the programme first – whether they like it or not!\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt’s just lovely,\u201d Daisy says. \u201cIt just feels like we’ve done a full circle and now we\u2019re coming back round.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe still live in Gloucestershire, and we don’t really like leaving the county because we\u2019re bumpkins really,\u201d Charlie adds. \u201cIt made sense.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Daisy May and Charlie Cooper’s NightWatch sees the pair spend the night at several historic and spooky locations in the UK (Image: BBC\/So Humble\/Roger Keller)\n<\/p>\n
\n Charlie explains he became an ambassador for Cirencester History Festival after doing a last-minute talk about Charlie Cooper\u2019s Myth Country at the first festival last year.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI got to know Jess [Yarrow, the festival\u2019s producer] quite well, and she said about doing something for this year,\u201d he says. \u201cShe had the idea about doing something based around my latest passion, which is metal detecting. She set me up with land that I’ve been detecting this last year. The festival\u2019s a lovely thing to support. It’s a no-brainer, really, because we grew up with not a lot going on in Ciren.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cSo, you\u2019re saying that by giving your talk on metal detecting, you’re supporting the history festival and not the history festival is supporting you?\u201d Daisy jokes. \u201cI\u2019ve seen more mad stuff just walking through the Abbey Grounds on a Saturday.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n So what places do the pair think are haunted in Cirencester? \u201cThe Fleece,\u201d says Daisy, who once had a guide to Cirencester\u2019s haunted places published in the Standard. \u201cThe Kings Head\u2019s really haunted. I worked at Rackhams [now The Old Department Store], and there was a manager there who very matter-of-factly said she saw stuff up in the staffroom. I never saw anything when I worked there, but I was always terrified. At WHSmith [where you worked], didn\u2019t you have a poltergeist?\u201d she asks her brother.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cYeah, apparently in the attic – which was sort of like a storeroom – there was a ghost there,\u201d Charlie says. \u201cFor NightWatch, we were very close to doing a Cirencester episode. Even at Queen Anne\u2019s Monument in Cirencester Park, there\u2019s a ghost of an airman.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n And what about the siblings\u2019 favourite spots around these parts?\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI\u2019m a big fan of The Long Table Cirencester,\u201d Charlie says. \u201cWe\u2019ve both got kids, so it\u2019s such a valuable thing to have in the town. It should be in every town in England, really.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThere\u2019s such a great atmosphere in Black Jack Street in Cirencester,\u201d Daisy adds.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI\u2019m also a big fan of the Corn Hall antiques market on a Friday,\u201d Charlie adds. \u201cCiren\u2019s happening again. It\u2019s got a soul again.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n A soul thanks in no small part to the brother-and-sister duo.\n<\/p>\n
\n Cirencester History Festival runs until Sunday, November 2. Daisy May and Charlie Cooper’s NightWatch is available to watch on iPlayer and on BBC Two at 9.30pm on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since then, however, the pair have faced serious competition from siblings Daisy May and Charlie Cooper. Bursting onto…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,391,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-237812","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-tv","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}