How did the creators of This Country become bigger than Benedict Cumberbatch?

For the most part, the annual Radio Times TV 100 list is exactly what you would expect – Olivia Colman, Chris Chibnall, David Attenborough, Idris Elba – but you don’t have to look too hard to see a curveball.

This year, Daisy May and Charlie Cooper, the siblings who created the BBC sitcom This Country, are in third place. They are above Gary Lineker, Laura Kuenssberg and Benedict Cumberbatch. Considering that This Country premiered online with zero fanfare, it is a surprising choice.

Unless you have watched This Country, that is. A mockumentary about two youths trapped in a small Cotswolds village, This Country is as beautifully observed as any piece of television of the past 50 years. No detail is too mundane to explore – its third episode was almost exclusively an argument about who got to cook their food on the top shelf of an oven – and it is never anything less than riotously funny. It is a masterpiece.

There is something irresistible about the rise of This Country. It is a breakthrough series for the Coopers, who had previously tried and failed to find their feet in television. Plus, it is a family affair, starring their dad, their uncle and a family friend. Its warmth is so overt that you can’t help but root for it.

Plonked on iPlayer and left there, This Country has become popular thanks to word of mouth. Those who like it tend to see it as their own, having stumbled upon it or been given a personal recommendation. There is a joy in showing it to a newcomer, too, so that it can also be theirs. This is why, when Daisy May gave her Bafta acceptance speech this year in a modified football top with “SWINDON” on the front and “MUCKLOWE” – her character’s surname – on the back, it felt like such a victory.

It will be tempting for the Coopers to move on now that they are industry bigshots, the same way Phoebe Waller-Bridge leapt from Fleabag to the prestige drama of Killing Eve. Hopefully, though, they will stick around in the Cotswolds for a little while. This Country is too good to abandon now.