People Just Do Nothing

Firmly in the tradition of the Office and Phoenix Nights comes this gem following the day to day ups and downs of a group of friends running a pirate radio station in a bedraggled West London neighborhood. We meet best pals, the wonderfully delusional MC Grindah and the loyal, clearly talented but dim DJ Kevin "Beats" Bates who run Brentford's top Garage/DnB,Grime Pirate radio station Kurupt FM. Not very ably assisted by child-like stoner Steves and modest & quiet DJ Decoy; the lads face the day to day struggles of keeping their station going and managing their complicated private lives. The ambitious but severely deluded local 'entrepreneur' Chabuddy G provides the station with much needed help & advice that usually brings chaos to the group, while Grindah's housewife/hair dresser girlfriend provides the vital ego massaging that a 'genius' like Grindah needs. Much of the comedy comes from Grindah's frustration at not being a mega star and with his loyal but dimwitted crew who seemingly frustrate his every move as well as the buffoon- ish but well intentioned Chabuddy's attempts to help his friends. This sort of thing has been done before and a lot of Grindah's mugging to camera is straight from the Ricky Gervais school of comedy but this is clearly a labour of love for the cast, about music they clearly have a passion and talent for. Truly a joy to watch the writing and acting (much of which is ab- libbed) are fantastic. A Bad News Tour or Spinal Tap for modern British urban music.

At first glance this is another British mockumentary in the same vein as The Office. Pathetic characters in normal situations that are familiar yet far-fetched. We laugh at these people with a 'there but for the grace of god' sigh of relief. And yet there's something very real about the characters we meet in this comedy. Even if you don't live in a council tower block you either know people like this or know that people like this exist. The ambitions and eventual failure in achieving them by these sorry losers is very real. They're decent, (fairly) honest people caught in a trap and you're really cheering for them, but if they came up trumps it wouldn't be funny. The comedy is in their failure.

Like many people of my generation who were aspiring DJs, spending countless nights on the decks with their mates getting stoned, there's so much in this that rings true, and these relatively unknown actors do a superb job in making it all feel so real. We laugh with them, we laugh at them, then we come away feeling really bad for them, and it's this subtle fine-line that makes this new comedy really stand out.

As an American I sadly was not in London when pirate radio and garage was popping. Nonetheless, the show managed to keep me invested in the story and the characters. While season one was slow, I'm glad I continued watching as the show gets much better. Season 4 was a little bit weak, but that's probably just because I wasn't a fan of Grindah's character in it. But the show managed to end on a high note with a good season 5 and a great ending. Overall the show is well worth a watch, and got me listening to some new music as well.

It's so close to being exactly how I grew up it's uncanny! Brilliant! So well written! I love it!

I am just a bit distraught that this will only be the 4th review on IMDb for this show. 8.6 is great but even after 3 series it still doesn't have the coverage it deserves. If they don't get more recognition they might not make any more. Plus how will Chabuddy ever get his own show?

Or how about Chabuddy G winning an apprentice special.

Think, misfits, spaced, Nathan barley crossed with spinal tap type genius. Mockumentry style with a clever low grade uk/Australian sense of place and time. It's not like it's 1998 is it mate.

I've been kurupted!