Daisy May Cooper’s co-star Michael Sleggs: Tragic beginnings to heartbreaking death

Loose Women: Daisy May Cooper cries discussing death of friend

Michael Sleggs is best known for his appearances on BBC Three mockumentary This Country as Michael ‘Slugs’ Slugette.

The actor had never starred in anything else, but a chance encounter with a primary school friend in the pub turned out to be his golden ticket when that friend later got her comedy greenlit by the BBC.

Daisy May Cooper offered Michael a job as an actor that night - years before her script even made it to television - and she made good on her promise.

The actress and writer was left heartbroken when Michael died at the age of 33 in 2019, after a long battle with congenital heart disease.

Michael was put in palliative care at the end of his life after struggling with various health conditions because of having a single-ventricle heart.

Michael Sleggs passed away at the young age of 33 (Image: Instagram)

He had already gone through five open heart operations by the time he was 10 years old, and suffered from two strokes when he was eight.

Towards the end of his life Michael told the Sun: "Now everything else is starting to knacker out a bit like the veins, my organs such as the kidneys, and liver has cirrhosis on it - and I don’t even drink anymore!

"For a normal person, your blood oxygen level is around 99 percent, for me, it’s 75 percent. Everyone goes: 'What? How are you still standing?'

"They’ve gone through every vein possible, it means I’ve got varicose veins everywhere and leg ulcers, which are horrible, open wounds where your shins don’t heal up for years and years."

Michael's former co-star Daisy May Cooper has spoken about the effect his death had on her (Image: Getty)

Despite his very difficult circumstances, Michael always looked on the bright side of life, especially when it came to his job.

He previously admitted that he nearly got axed from This Country for laughing too much on set, adding: "The first series I was awful. I thought everything was so funny, seeing Charlie act was hilarious, I would crack up constantly during takes.

"I was so close to getting fired, but they gave me a second chance, and we got the Hollywood coach in, so it was a lot easier.

"She helped a lot, I was stronger with my acting ability. So many of us had no acting experience, there was a lot of us just being the same as we are in real life. I was told: 'Don’t say it as if you’re acting, just be yourself.'"

Daisy has recently spoken about her bond with Michael, sharing that she asked her co-star to send her a message from the afterlife to let her know that he is okay.

She told Loose Women panellists that she believes Michael knocked on her bedroom door after his death, on the day of a gig he had been looking forward to attending.

Daisy also told the Times he predicted the date he would die, adding: "When he was in palliative care near the end, he'd been in agony for his whole life, he was frightened of dying.

"But then he phoned me up and said, 'I'm not scared any more, I felt this angelic light at the bottom of the bed that told me within seven days at midnight I'd have a new body.'

"And he died within seven days, at 11.59. That brought so much comfort."