Daisy May Cooper has revealed that both she and her brother Charlie used to shoplift before their breakthrough roles in This Country. The comedy pair both wrote, created and acted in the mockumentary-style sitcom together, which is based on their experiences living in the Cotswolds.
She and Charlie went on to win a breakthrough talent and scripted comedy Bafta for their BBC Three series. Cooper has previously said ahead of publishing her 2021 memoir Don’t Laugh, It’ll Only Encourage Her that she grew up in “rural poverty” in Gloucestershire and took on a “myriad of low-paid, unrewarding jobs”.
The 36-year-old actress told this week’s Radio Times: “Me and Charlie used to shoplift all the time. He used to put a chicken through as onions at the supermarket self-service because onions obviously cost so much less. He got caught and we were followed around after that. It’s awful, but you do what you have to do to survive.”
She added that it is “not right morally” and cited folklore hero Robin Hood stealing from the rich to feed the poor as someone people think is “great”. Cooper, who also won a TV Bafta award for best female comedy performance in 2018 for This Country and is nominated for the same award at this year’s event for Am I Being Unreasonable?, also stars in comedy series Rain Dogs which sees her play a working-class single mother.
She has also appeared on The Masked Singer, 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown, Never Mind The Buzzcocks, RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Vs The World and Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway. Cooper added she feels “grateful” and she has “grown as a person” from her success but she has “anxiety” that it is “going to end tomorrow”.
She added: “If you’ve come from that background, earning money becomes an addiction. Honestly, I couldn’t care less what it is. Even if it’s like some really bad reality love show, if it’s going to put food on the table, then I’m there.”
Am I Being Unreasonable?, created by Cooper and Land Girls actress Selin Hizli, who both star in the comedy, has also received Bafta nods for child actor Lenny Rush’s male performance in a comedy programme and scripted comedy. Read the full interview in Radio Times, out now.
