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“I took my girlfriend to Luton away on Boxing Day – that was her Christmas present,” says Charlie Cooper, outlining his fondness for Fulham before conversation belatedly moves to fishing and filming the third and final series of the Bafta-winning mockumentary This Country. “You look into people’s back gardens [upon entry into Kenilworth Road]; it’s so strange but I do love it and it’s so English. The way we support, it is that island mentality. I’ve been to Ajax, games in France, Germany, and places like Dortmund are amazing, and the ultras … but it’s not the same. When Crystal Palace did that whole ultras bit, it was sort of laughable. It’s not English; it’s just not what we do.”
Cooper spent last weekend with friends in Bavaria, taking in 1860 Munich’s 1-1 draw with Waldhof Mannheim on Saturday and Bayern Munich’s stalemate with RB Leipzig the following afternoon. The leftovers of Storm Ciara hampered his journey home to the Cotswolds – the backdrop to the BBC comedy he created with his sister, Daisy May – but the good news is that Cooper made it back in time for Wednesday’s episode of Fulham’s promotion push at the Den.
“I can’t miss that,” he says, having enjoyed a trip to Millwall en route to the Premier League two years ago. “You drink in London Bridge and get a police escort. There is nothing like being with a bunch of blokes, surrounded by policeman, knowing that you can’t get beaten up but you can still … I’m not a football thug but you get caught up in those moments. I was like: ‘Fucking come on!’ You get on the train to South Bermondsey, and then you go through that horrible tunnel to the away section. [On Saturday] we were very near the away fans but when teams score you don’t have anyone doing like cut-throat signs to each other – people don’t even look at each other and there is little intimidation.” Straight back down to earth, then? “I better wear my hat – if I get spotted I’ll be mincemeat.”
This Country follows the trials and tribulations of lovable cousins Kerry and Kurtan Mucklowe as they battle to beat boredom in a Gloucestershire backwater, but Cooper is compelling company. We tail off on different tangents, from his fascination with Forest Green Rovers to losing a few years to Football Manager, his love of Subbuteo and Gareth Southgate’s infamous World Cup waistcoat. We meet in front of a roaring fireplace at an upmarket members’ club in Soho – a world away from the siblings’ roots in Cirencester – but it seems apt that there is a TK Maxx, a favourite haunt of his character, Kurtan, within spitting distance. “It served me well for a good number of years,” Cooper says. “But it’s quite stressful to shop there, with stuff on the floors, all trampled on. It’s a free-for-all.”
Last year Daisy May attended the Baftas in an unmistakable binbag frock made by her mother, 12 months on from turning up to the red-carpet event in a Swindon Town crepe dress, a nod to her character, Kerry, who has a penchant for unofficial merchandise, notably an England shirt with one too many lions on the badge, and a cluttered bedroom of League Two memorabilia.
“That was so true to Kerry’s character: she is totally the sort of person that would buy knockoff England gear and stuff like that because so did we, basically,” he says. “My first England shirt I bought was the reversible one: red and navy. That was epic; it was like two for the price of one. When you know that world so well, it can be quite easy to write.”
It is not only Kerry who is desperate to look the part, with Cooper admitting he could not resist buying an 1860 shirt last weekend. “It is made by Macron, which is such a Kurtan make, but I bought it to impress the 1860 fans. When we had [Claudio] Ranieri as Fulham manager he had one coat that literally went to here,” Cooper says, pointing towards his ankles. “It was like a sleeping bag. It was brilliant. I was emailing the club shop like: ‘Where can I get one?’”
But Cooper’s finest Fulham souvenir stemmed from a trip to Goodison Park in 2007: a match-worn Brian McBride shirt. “At the end he took it off, threw it in the crowd and I caught it. I’ve got it hanging up in my room at home, and it still stinks of his sweat. It’s still got all of the muddy streaks and stuff. I absolutely love it. He was an all-American hero. And to this day McBride is included in my email address and I use that address for all my work stuff. People are like: ‘Your surname is McBride, I thought it was Cooper?’ It’s like: ‘No, he was my favourite footballer when I was young.’”
Cooper and his father, Paul, who plays Martin Mucklowe in This Country, are season-ticket holders at Craven Cottage, where he once played in a five-a-side tournament alongside Barry Hayles. “That was a dream come true. We had chemistry. I was on the right side and there were a few one-twos going on. I never played at any level but what I lack in technical ability, and pace, and strength, I think I read the game quite well …”
He chuckles before recalling the two years his dad spent in charge of Cirencester Juniors. “We would get bulldozed every week, like 10-0. But my dad used to be obsessed with Dutch football, he used to read all these coaching manuals and go on courses and he used to try and make us play this Dutch passing football: 3-5-2, always play it out from the back. Total Football. The keeper would pass it to the full-back, get tackled and they’d go and score. His insistence was so tragic but, looking back, it is quite funny.”
This Country returns on Monday – “we’re happy but the night before it comes out I will probably be sick” – two years on from winning best-scripted comedy at the Baftas, earning the siblings friends in high places, but Cooper admits to being more starstruck by Championship footballers. “Seeing players on the same train or at the station, it’s amazing – it’s like seeing a wild animal.
“On Boxing Day I did an Instagram post saying I was at Luton and their striker, Harry Cornick, messaged me saying: ‘Scored against you today.’ A lower-league player who is a fan of the show – that’s way above Ant & Dec. It’s such a world I’m not involved in. Now we’re in this [television] industry, it’s one of things where you spend so long trying to break through and you put it on a pedestal – ‘it must be amazing to be there’ – and once you’re there, it’s like ‘this is it’, and it’s always an anticlimax. Football is the escape, because it’s the world I’m not in.”
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