NORTHLEACH, England — Daisy May Cooper and her brother Charlie endured so many humiliations in the years it took to get their BBC sitcom, “This Country,” on the air that it would be hard to pick a standout rock bottom moment. One candidate: The day producers of an earlier version of the show, optioned by a different network and never aired, sent a note that read, “The cast is too ugly.”

“I was the lead in it,” said Daisy May, cackling at the memory. “What was I supposed to do with that?”

Both Coopers were then in their 20s and living at their parents’ home in the Cotswolds, a scenic and drowsy region in southwest England, a place all their peers had left. The pair had flamed out in London, she as an actress, he as a sales clerk at Topshop, and were in the middle of five dispiriting years writing scripts and shuffling through unglamorous jobs.

“We were night cleaners at an office building,” said Daisy May. “We’d go in together at 6 and clean toilets, vacuum the carpets.”