By Anna May @AnnaMayMight

Bingo! This is the episode I was waiting for. I knew it was on its way. Episode five of This Country (Peeping Tom) brings us the painful truth about Kerry and her unrequited feelings for her dad, Martin Mucklowe…and what a prize bastard he is as well.

So, why are we laughing through the cringes? Probably because we know this is just a comedy programme and it’s all made up…right?

After all, there’s Kurtan trying his hardest to woo a young girl who’s just moved into his street, after describing himself as a victim in all his past relationships and begging sympathy with his sob stories about being ‘fucked over’ several times…and Kerry’s mum screeching all the gossip about Kerry’s dad being a serial Peeping Tom from upstairs with a voice that could grate concrete.

The thing is…why IS this series so funny? It’s just a handful of people mooching about in an empty village, talking nonsense to each other. I mean…we don’t even see Kerry’s mum, but viewers are crying with laughter each time she screams down the stairs. Why?

Well…to my mind, it’s not just about the dialogue and the way these actors are nailing their portrayals of each do-nothing character, to the point you can actually believe they’re just normal Northleach residents trying to act up for the cameras.

It’s also the incredible editing that’s making a HUGE impact on the overall production. The awkward scenes, like Kurtan’s date with the seemingly shy and dead-eyed Kayleigh, are pushed just enough into cringe territory, before we’re cut off and sent elsewhere to listen to Kerry giving us her incredibly important views on something so woefully irrelevant it’s ridiculous! Then, bam, the birds are tweeting and a vast stretch of empty countryside appears with a tiny figure straggling across it, breathlessly recounting a totally stupid event, with far more urgency than it deserves.

So it’s not just those carefully counted few seconds of silence after each bizarre exchange or uninformed speech that make the difference. It’s also the immediate cuts that avoid useless silences we don’t need. Each episode may only be twenty, or so, minutes long, but if the timing’s not right, the comedy is lost. I have to say, after collecting as much footage as possible for this series, the editing for each episode must be an absolute joy…or a nightmare. What to choose?

The writing, the acting, the production, the filming, the sound, the direction, the editing. It’s all here…and it’s all working.

Seriously…there are people everywhere, raving so hard about this series…and it just goes to prove how important each and every crew member’s job is, with regard to turning even the most boring of subjects into a mockumentary that stands out to this degree.

This Country is funny and so very awkward…and you can’t help giggling at the characters’ naivety, but doesn’t it still just make you want to find that neglectful toe-rag of a father and punch him to the floor? It does me…and that’s what’s great about this series. It gives you a pretty large dose of real feelings about real stuff that actually affects real people. We hardly notice it seeping in through all the arguing and bragging and aimless wandering about...but it’s there…and we get it.

Daisy May and Charlie Cooper have really brought so much more to this than just a script full of silly banter. They really have…and this episode hit me right where I wanted it to. My heart. When Kurtan stuck up for Kerry in front of her father, I thought…yes…there’s a connection between these kids I can believe.

Yeah, I know it’s not real, but I believe it enough to want Kerry and Kurtan to keep pushing for a better life. They can’t have one, obviously, because This Country won’t let them…and you can take that comment however you like. Yep.