People Just Do Nothing: Pirate radio MCs and their crew are back for the final track of a mockumentary hit

Not so solid crew: the MCs of “bad” pirate radio station Kurupt FM
Roughcut Television/ Jack Barnes

Run the riddim, as they say on west London’s most maverick radio station, Kurupt FM, because People Just Do Nothing, the comic mockumentary about MCs and their crews, is back for a fifth series.

This pirate set-up is still the baddest radio station whatever anyone says. Just don’t put its statements under scrutiny — when the person behind the camera asks who’s been saying it’s not the baddest radio station, the MCs reply like defensive children:

“No one, no one’s saying anything.” It’s meant to be a tragi-comic moment: like David Brent in one of the show’s clear influences, The Office, these MCs are self-appointed big fish in a small pond that they are desperately trying to maintain.

MC Grindah, Chabuddy G and the rest of the band of fictional MCs and DJs are a BBC Three success story.

The first series of the show aired on the channel in 2014 and was so popular it was moved to BBC Two. It beat Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag to the Bafta for Best Scripted Comedy last year, which MC Grindah still brags about in interviews. It’s even crossed over into real life, with Kurupt FM going on sell-out tours.

We catch up with the crew a year after we left them. It’s been eventful. Thankfully we have newlyweds Grindah and Miche to bring us up to speed. The wedding was “a shit night” for Grindah. While they were celebrating their love with a daytime rave, Grindah’s colleague at Kurupt FM, Steves, was arrested for drug possession (his grandmother fixed him up with some substances) and police confiscated their radio equipment. But having no kit won’t stop this lot.

Cue a heist-style operation where they try to make money to buy new equipment at a car-boot sale — without paying for a stand. Can they pull it off by using just their wits, or will they get into yet another scrape? At least Steves is out on probation (the police didn’t think it was worth sending him down because Kurupt FM is such a low-level pirate operation).

The show has lost some of its novelty, but committed fans will still find plenty to enjoy. It’s not just the script that’s funny, there is humour in Miche’s pink crushed-velvet tracksuit, her Mr & Mrs ornament and the sign saying “Dream, Love, Live” hanging over her sofa.

Roughcut Television/ Jack Barnes

There are plenty of quotable one-liners startlingly lacking in self-awareness. A sample: “If you’ve got goals you don’t need a job”, “I’m the Indian Del Boy, Dahl Boy” and “People didn’t realise Jesus was talented until thousands of years later. It’s like that with Grindah”.

Newcomers may be a bit bemused, and if you don’t instinctively warm to this type of mocking humour and braggadocio, don’t bother. Knowing about garage music and its culture also helps with getting the jokes.

The poignant political undercurrent is strong. The tower blocks that the MCs live in are getting knocked down and Miche may have to move to Essex because she is floored by the admin surrounding relocation.

Miche is the best character. She doesn’t try as hard as the boys and her scenes are perfectly wrought situational comedy, especially the one where she doesn’t know what to write in a colleague’s leaving card. Everyone else has written what she wants to say already, and just how honest should she be? We’ve all been there, Miche.

This is the final series, and perhaps that’s a good thing — People Just do Nothing deserves to go out on a high.

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