Little known in the U.S., BBC's 'People Just Do Nothing' is an endearing comedy

The fourth series of BBC’s “People Just Do Nothing” hit Netflix in September 2017. Reminiscent of deadpan comedy mockumentaries like U.K.’s “The Office,” the show chronicles the daily lives of MC Grindah (Allan Mustafa) and DJ Beats (Hugo Chegwin), two friends who run a pirate radio station in West London despite being truly awful at what they do. With the help of drug enthusiast Steves (Steve Stamp) and reserved DJ Decoy (Daniel Sylvester Woolford), 108.9 Kurupt FM broadcasts UK garage and drum-and-bass to the Brentford area. Chabuddy G (Asim Chaudhry), an ever-evolving but never successful entrepreneur, tags along, offering solutions to Kurupt’s problems that almost always exacerbate them. Each 30-minute episode is its own self-contained story, but it is the characters and their relationships that unite each short series.

While previous series of the show have focused on the minutiae of running a pirate radio station — from soundproofing their apartment studio to globalizing Kurupt with the help of the internet — the newest series concerns itself primarily with the relationships between characters. The start of the fourth series finds Beats and Grindah in radically different places in their lives — the former, a family man and the later, an uncontrollable bachelor. While Beats and his partner Roche (Ruth Bratt) grow accustomed to life with a newborn, Grindah continues his downward spiral after a breakup with longtime girlfriend Miche (Lily Brazier), whom he attempts to reconcile with over homemade lasagna. 

Steves, surprisingly emotionally affected by the death of his Nan in series three, finds himself suddenly rich. Believing Beats’s baby Robynn to be the reincarnation of his Nan, Steves forges a bond with her. What’s more, a rival pirate radio station threatens Kurupt’s territory, Steves is arrested and Grindah somehow remains ignorant of the fact that his daughter Angel was actually fathered by Decoy. 

Though fairly unpopular in the States, “People Just Do Nothing” has exploded in the U.K. Mustafa, Chegwin, Stamp and Chaudhry have made a live act out of the show and frequently travel London in character as Kurupt FM. Alongside one-time shows, the four have played music festivals including Glastonbury and Reading and Leeds, and have released Kurupt FM music on iTunes. Popular UK icons, Mustafa and Chegwin even interviewed Daisy Ridley about her role as Rey in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” 

As the show has progressed, co-writers Mustafa and Stamp have admitted that more and more of the content has been improvised. In an interview with Vice, Mustafa said that he wrote approximately 70 percent of the third series; the remaining 30 percent was improvised by the actors. 

For a scripted comedy show, 30 percent improvisation seems like a high percentage. But the four main actors — Mustafa, Chegwin, Stamps, and Chaundhry — have been playing these characters for six years. Their intimate knowledge of their characters shines through in every episode and is, in part, what makes them so endearing. 

Though each of the characters is deluded in their own way — either about their talent, intelligence or the success of their romantic relationships — we can’t help but root for them. Their constant shenanigans and misfires, their childlike pursuit of an unattainable and ridiculous goal and their unique and charming friendships provide the raw materials for a show that leaves you laughing out loud and eagerly clicking to the next episode.