Daisy May & Charlie's NightWatch sees This Country creators and stars Daisy May Cooper and her brother Charlie reunite on screen to spend the night together in notorious and reportedly haunted buildings across the UK, discovering long hidden secrets about the buildings – and each other.

Since childhood, Charlie and Daisy have been fascinated by the paranormal. They think it was fuelled by the creepy movies they were allowed to watch as kids and it’s a passion they both have followed fervently ever since.

In NightWatch, they seize the opportunity to prove any existence of spooks, spirits and ghouls. To give themselves the best chance, they visit some of the UK’s most reputedly haunted locations and challenge themselves to stay overnight.

This is also a chance for the siblings to spend some much-needed time together, to reconnect and once again enjoy their shared sense of humour – whatever the circumstances.

Daisy May and Charlie Cooper's NightWatch, iPlayer and BBC Two, 9.30pm, from Sunday, 26 October.

Daisy May and Charlie Cooper

Tell us about what led you to doing this new series together?

Daisy: Ever since we were kids, we’ve really been into the paranormal or supernatural, so that always fascinates me. We’ve also just not had the time to spend together since doing This Country. We’ve both had kids since and we just don’t get to do creative things or spend time with each other without the family around. So this idea came from both of those things really.

Charlie: We’ve both been into this stuff for so long and it’s something we’ve always shared. Like you say, with work and family life at home making it difficult to spend time together, this was a brilliant way of hanging out again, doing what we love – but obviously in a bit of a bizarre and weird environment!

What encounters have you had in your life with the paranormal?

Daisy: I’ve spoken about quite a few different times where I’ve come across the unexplained or had actual encounters with ghosts – like something pulling my duvet up from my bed, and the legs of the little boy running in a bedroom of mine a few years ago. But recently, our nanny was staying the night in our house and she got jabbed in the back and then my dad was staying over and he had a bath in the en-suite there and got jabbed in the neck.

And then my mum was in there two days ago and she heard a man's voice in the bathroom, saying ‘honey’. Which is the name of my mum's dead dog, which is just really weird. I heard knocking also in the morning again at home recently. Weirdly, it always happens in the morning, so never at night-time when you'd think it'd be scary. It's just so wild.

Charlie: I personally haven’t had any encounters with the paranormal, but that’s the reason why I wanted to do the show so much, because I would really love to have an experience. Having said that, it surprised me how spooked I got when we were filming, so I might have to rethink that.

But our grandad saw a ghost years ago and I remember vividly him telling us what happened and the way he described it was so captivating. It had me hooked on the paranormal ever since. He lived in this old cottage and there was an alleyway than ran alongside the house into a dead end and he saw a peasant figure with a pickaxe on the shoulder walking down the alley and then disappear into the end wall. He mentioned it to his neighbour, and they had seen the same ghostly figure a few times over the years, which is pretty mad. I had no reason to doubt my grandad – he was a GP and really straightforward reliable guy. So I suppose I started believing in ghosts from then on.

What were the locations like? Did you look forward to staying there?

Charlie: It was pretty amazing. To have access to these incredible places like that – and be left alone in a building that’s known for being haunted... you can’t get better than that. We’ve both been so into all the YouTube shows and groups who are into it, but we’ve dreamed about this kind of thing since we were kids.

Daisy: You’ll see in the first episode at Gloucester prison – you’d just never ever go there if you weren’t a little bit obsessed. It’s totally empty and so bleak! Meeting Clive the custodian, who showed us around and talked us through the history, was creepy enough it itself. Clive wasn’t creepy at all! But he really painted a picture of what used to happen there and all the executions and hangings. Honestly, I did think then, what the hell are we doing getting left in a cell here overnight?

Charlie: Yeah, it was like silence and echoes and you could hear any small sound. We didn’t really know what we were in for. Knowing all the stuff that went on and the people who died there. I think we were both relieved to be sharing a bunk bed in the end!

Daisy: And at Chillingham Castle in Northumberland, they had an actual torture dungeon there! They say there’s a 17th century Spanish witch who haunts the place as she loves it so, so much. You see loads of letters from people who’ve been there and might have taken something from the castle or annoyed the witch. And those people have had really awful luck since, and they want to return what they took and leave a letter for the witch. It’s crazy and there are so, so many letters that they can’t all be wrong, can they?

Where do you think your interest in ghosts and the supernatural stuff come from?

Charlie: I guess being allowed to watch anything as a kid, probably sort of terrified us. Our parents let us watch whatever we wanted and obviously one of the things we had to do growing up in the countryside was going to the video shop to rent out whatever we could. I swear we watched the entire collection of horror films they had. Not sure it was a great thing ,but we loved it so much.

Daisy: We’d stay up late and watch this stuff. We were so young I realise now! I tell you where mine started – Casper - we loved that VHS! And Ghostbusters we used to love. We had the record of Ghostbusters and you used to march around the dining room to it.

Charlie: Ha ha, yes, and Nightmare Before Christmas was another one. We've always just been drawn to the supernatural and ghosts, haven't we? There was always like, the Ouija board lying around and mum would have friends who'd be spiritual mediums.

Daisy: We'd want to play Operation the board game and she'd say 'no, why don't you get the Ouija board out and go have a go on this?'

Charlie: It's probably not a good thing, and we weren't cleansing ourselves before we did the game.

Daisy: No, absolutely not and we'd just play on the Sega Mega Drive straight after.

What can you give away about any spooky encounters or what you discovered? Has it changed the way you think about haunted spaces or the paranormal?

Charlie: Well, we can’t give away too much obviously. Part of what we enjoy with this stuff is the suspense! But I tell you what was weird. The spookiest thing that wasn't caught on camera was in the pub in York, you know, on the bar they had all beer glasses on the hooks. One was just swinging and the others were totally still – I had no idea why - but it wasn't on camera.

Daisy: You’re also forgetting that insane telepathy test we did – that blew my mind. It was so weird seeing how we matched. I was like, surely we’re not that similar?! And both of us are still so obsessed with paranormal activity and it’s spurred me on to keep looking for evidence. I do it in my life anyway, but even more so now!

Charlie: Oh, I’ll never stop looking for ghosts.

Daisy: If I was a ghost, I’d hate all those people that do the tours or like me asking them how they died and all that. I bet they’re like, oh god, are you bringing this up again?

Have you learned anything about yourselves or each other?

Charlie: Sharing room together again was funny.

Daisy: What I like about you is you're very sort of long and thin and you take up very little space. You don't snore either.

Charlie: Yeah, I didn't snore because I wasn't sleeping! Did you know you vaped in your sleep?

Daisy: Yeah, I know that. That is terrifying. And I'm not the only person who vapes like that.

Charlie: You're clutching the vape as you sleep so tightly, it's mad. It's like, no one can prize it out of your hands! But sharing a room was like a throwback to being kids.

Daisy: Yeah, and you getting the bunk that you want! I learned that you've not really changed at all, really. It's funny that, when you're just an adult version of a kid.

Charlie: I don't think anyone really changes, do they? You put on a front to other people you don't know, how you want someone to perceive you, but fundamentally in your core person, you don't change from when you're a child. But seriously, it has made me realised that after This Country came out, we’ve kind of been separated again. Working so closely with each other and then nothing near that, is weird. We were so lucky to get the show we’d worked so, so hard to get but after, we had so much else going on. So with this, it’s been really good to reconnect and with actual proper time. I’ve missed you a lot and family and work and get in the way.

Daisy: Same for me. I remembered you’re a really lovely brother. Plus we did go off on so many tangents digging up our past and our childhoods – finding out some ridiculous truths from when we were kids about what really happened to my toys. And also we found out we’re distant relatives of a very notorious historical figure, which does explain a lot!

How do you think audiences will react to the show? Is it important to be a believer in the paranormal to enjoy it?

Daisy: I mean, I hope they enjoy it – even if it’s just us being awful to each other. But honestly you don’t have to be as obsessed with the paranormal to enjoy the show – we’re just exploring and I think I’m more of a believer than Charlie and he loves it all anyway.

Charlie: Yeah – I’ve gone into this completely open and whether you’ve had an encounter yourself or not, these places are fascinating, they’re creepy. We do have some really eye-opening experiences there and there’s a lot that we don’t know or understand.

Daisy: There are loads of unanswered questions and I won’t spoil it but you’ll know when you see it, that there’s some really crazy stuff in there. Anyway, look, if you like it, say you do and l like it on social media. Help us out and be loud with your praise. And if you don't like it, just don't say anything.

Charlie: Don't say it.

Daisy: But if you like us, and you're going out for the day, put just put it on while you're out, because it will still clock it up on iPlayer, and it keeps dogs company.

Charlie: It does keep dogs company.

Picture/interview supplied by publicists