Daisy May Cooper admits to DRUGGING her dad and mom with sleeping tablets so she may romp along with her teenage boyfriend in household residence after years of ‘poisonous parenting’

Eight years ago, Cirencester’s most famous siblings, Daisy May and Charlie Cooper, became the toast of the TV world.

But although This Country, the mockumentary sitcom in which they played cousins Kerry and Kurtan, won several BAFTAs, it was famously born out of desperation, scripted while they shared a mattress and a cleaning job.

They were at rock bottom then; Daisy dealing with the humiliation of returning home after studying at RADA, Charlie having dropped out of university. 

They were not only on their uppers financially, but trying to support their parents, who had been evicted from their home.

They pulled each other through and This Country, which also starred their dad Paul and uncle Trevor, lifted the whole family’s fortunes.

In the years since, Daisy and Charlie have gone on to have successful (separate) careers and now have families of their own, with five children between them, but their sibling rivalry is as strong as ever. ‘We argue over whose turn it is to have Mum babysitting,’ Charlie says.

They still live near each other in Gloucestershire, but readily admit they’ve drifted apart to a degree because of their busy lives. 

Also because, I suspect, Daisy – a woman with ADHD and a history of depression and addiction – must be quite difficult to be around, however much she makes you hoot.

Now they’ve been reunited for a new TV project that sees them share a bedroom again.

Called NightWatch, it’s a bit like Springwatch but with fewer lambs and more ghosts. The premise is that the pair, who are both fascinated by the supernatural, spend the night in haunted buildings.

What qualifies them for the ghost gig? 

Well, a childhood filled with terror. ‘Our parents let us watch whatever we wanted,’ says Charlie, 36. ‘Which meant the entire collection of horror films the video shop had.’

Their mum used to drag them off to see mediums (mostly to try to talk to their aunt Alison, who had died in a car accident), and there was also a much-used Ouija board at home. 

‘We’d want to play Operation, the board game, and she’d say, “No, why don’t you get the Ouija board out?”’ says Daisy, 39.

NightWatch might be the funniest supernatural show since Renta­ghost, not because they encounter many ghosts (they don’t, although they do claim to have found out that they can communicate telepathically) but because if you put these two in the same room, you’re going to get some laughs… and the humour can be very dark.

Quite how chalk-and-cheese they are is apparent in the first episode as they arrive for their night at Gloucester Prison. 

High-maintenance Daisy brings pink cushions, lashings of fake tan, a selection of crystals and a cuddly unicorn. 

Charlie carries little more than a change of underwear and a toothbrush. ‘It sums us up,’ he says. ‘She needs all this stuff, it’s a reflection of what’s going on in her head. I’m more… frugal.’

‘Or it could be that I’ve got a personality and you don’t?’ suggests Daisy mischievously.

Was there sibling bonding during filming? ‘There really was. I think after the success of This Country we were pulled apart,’ Charlie says.

‘We probably needed a break from each other, because it was quite intense working together as well as being siblings.’ 

There was never a falling out, adds Daisy, but ‘we stopped hanging out together. But doing this actually made me see that he’s actually a pretty good brother.’

The show is made by the team behind Mortimer And Whitehouse: Gone Fishing and is, at heart, more about the sibling relationship than ghosts. 

How to sum up that relationship? Blimey, it’s complicated. While there’s a powerful bond, they’re fighting like cat and dog even as we kick off our Zoom interview.

They’re at Charlie’s house with their mum Gillian, but Daisy says this is not a regular occurrence. ‘You’ve never invited me over for Sunday lunch,’ she moans.

‘We have you and the kids all the time – and you never tidy up after yourselves.’

Charlie hits back, saying he likes Daisy’s partner Ant and adores her children, but Daisy is ‘so critical’. ‘I make you a coffee and it’s not hot enough. It’s too bitter. It’s in a weird mug. Everything is scrutinised.

And I know you’re quite happy to do it to my face, but you’re also happy to do it behind my back on the way home.’

Daisy smirks. ‘Guess who else loves talking about you behind your back? Mum! Before she came here she said, “I bet the house is cold and they haven’t got the fire on.”’

Charlie can give as good as he gets and reminds her that ‘if it hadn’t been for our family, you’d be in prison’. 

For what? ‘Fraud? Forgery maybe,’ he says. ‘She was always thieving. Didn’t she steal from you, Mum?’

Daisy confesses that she did, when she was 17. 

‘Then there was the time you crushed up sleeping tablets and put them in Mum and Dad’s tea so you could meet a boy,’ says Charlie. Pardon? Daisy nods at this one too.

‘I did, actually. I had this boyfriend who worked late in a Chinese restaurant and Mum and Dad would never go to sleep so from 8pm I’d start poisoning their tea. That’s quite dark.’

She says the new show helped them reappraise their childhood. 

She idolised their father Paul, who has since appeared on Celebrity Gogglebox with her, but now she chides herself for it. 

Paul was a frustrated performer who, Daisy claims, let them think he’d written the song Tambourine Man. ‘Now I look back, his stories about how EMI had wanted to sign him were rubbish,’ she says.

‘Maybe we needed to develop a sense of humour to deal with the toxic parenting. Our dad was a closet narcissist.’

When she and her brother got famous, Daisy went off the rails. Her marriage fell apart, and she went to rehab for alcohol addiction. 

She says she’s incapable of dealing with money and can’t be trusted with adult responsibility. 

‘There’s a recklessness about Daisy,’ says Charlie. ‘Watching her is like watching an alien dropped on Earth and trying to function. She’s so talented but also a complete headcase.

‘If we were on the Titanic, Daisy would be waving the shotgun at the women and children on the lifeboat, saying, “Get out. This is mine!” Whereas I’d be on the deck playing the violin to calm people down.’

Daisy fixes him with a look. ‘And guess who’d still be alive.’

Daisy May & Charlie Cooper’s NightWatch, Sunday, 9:30pm, BBC2.