It’s been three years since the west London estate comedy People Just Do Nothing came off the air. The daily mishaps of the Kurupt FM crew began life as a scrappy web series, but through word-of-mouth they grew to become alternative national treasures with their clueless brand of comedy and sweet, shambolic friendships.
The film reunites the characters some years after their cherished pirate radio station was forced to fold. Leading the pack are MC Grindah (Allan Mustafa) and his right-hand man DJ Beats (Hugo Chegwin), with “you can’t hustle a hustler” manager Chabuddy G (Asim Chaudhry) and mates Steves (Steve Stamp) and Decoy (Daniel Sylvester Woolford) always close by, if not always useful. After Chabuddy, all loud shirts and with a suggestion of a ponytail, gets a call from Japan to say that the crew have garnered a huge local following, they giddily fly over in the hope of finally scoring a record deal.
The low stakes mockumentary format is ditched and replaced with a predictable fable about fame.
Screenwriters Mustafa and Stamp lean on the show’s winning traits to carry the film. The boys’ gormless, David Brent-style of humour thrives in their alien surroundings, and the playground-born relationship between Beats and Grindah hasn’t lost its tenderness. However, in a bid to translate the boy’s story into a feature-length film, the low stakes mockumentary format is ditched and replaced with a predictable fable about fame.
Ever since Spinal Tap cranked it up to 11, movie bands have found themselves torn between fortune and friendship, and Kurupt FM find themselves stuck in the same stuffy formula, only with neon lycra onesies instead of a miniature Stonehenge. Yet one of the upsides of the longstanding collaborators working together again is their well-formed ability to enrich any scenario with a moving emotional payoff, cue playground tantrums, tears and the excellent use of The Streets’ ‘Dry Your Eyes Mate’.
Given the show’s trajectory from YouTube pipe dream to BAFTA-winning glory, it’s unsurprising that its creators want to give something back to its audience. By catering almost exclusively to that audience, the opportunity to bring People Just Do Nothing to new viewers has been missed here. However, the group’s daft and loving dynamic never feels dull nor outdated, even if it’s rooted in a music scene that’s more than a decade old.
