People Just Do Nothing producer Ash Atalla on Kurupt FM growing up and why the show could be as big as The Office

Ash Atalla, whose production credits include The Office, and producer Jon Petrie tell The Independent why they think YouTube series-turned BBC3 cult hit People Just Do Nothing is set to break into comedy's big league

Kurupt FM: Chabuddy G (BBC/Roughcut)

We all know someone like MC Grindah, the “star” of BBC3’s People Just Doing Nothing, a mockumentary following the highs – and there are a lot of chemical-induced ones – and lows of pirate radio station Kurupt FM. Grindah, played by Allan “Seapa” Mustafa, refuses to let his childhood ambition die. In this case, it’s his deluded belief that he is on his way to becoming a top garage DJ. Along with mates Kevin “DJ Beats” Bates (Hugo Chegwin), Decoy (Daniel Sylvester Woolford), MDMA-addled Steves, played by Steve Stamp, and the crew’s fixer-turned-manager Chabuddy G (Asim Chaudhry), he is intent on broadcasting garage and drum ‘n’ bass to the world - or in reality, a handful of people in his native Brentford, west London.

The show, which started life as a YouTube series filmed by Chaudhry and is currently nine episodes plus a pilot in, has a cult following among the people you would expect – Millennials, mostly, those who remember garage from its late Nineties and early noughties heyday, some younger viewers who like the sweary anarchy of it all – the boys spend their days “blazing”, and definitely not working - and those into the music. Lily Allen, Professor Green and Ed Sheeran are fans and it has spawned sell-out club nights and a Radio 1xtra “takeover” that so far has nearly more than 1.4 million views on YouTube.

But producers Ash Atalla, the man behind The Office and The IT Crowd, and his colleague Jon Petrie at the production company Roughcut, who originally championed the Kurupt guys, see the third series as the one that will turn the show into a household name.

“It’s about a group of friends who are stuck, chasing their dreams,” says Atalla when we meet to discuss the new series. “People who really need to move on and get on with being adults,” adds Petrie. These are universal themes that they hope will broaden its appeal. The Kurupt FM crew are in danger of actually growing up. Grindah and gormless girlfriend Miche (Lily Brazier) got engaged in the series two finale while he was high on pills and things are changing for Beats and girlfriend Roche at home, too.

“It’s at what point do you actually put the microphone down and say ‘I have to get a shitty admin job, this isn’t going to pay’?” says Atalla. “I think that’s a real dilemma facing young people who want to do jobs that everyone else wants to do.” As well as the themes that might resonate with its young viewers, the producers hope that the more family-orientated storylines outside of the radio station will help engage viewers outside the current demographic.

Grindah, Miche (Lily Brazier) and Angel (Olivia Jasmine Edwards) (BBC/Roughcut)

From viewing the first, very funny, episode of the new series, I think they’re on the money. While Atalla’s pedigree might get people watching (and he accepts that comparisons with his hit mockumentary are inevitable), this show is very much a star in its own right, thanks to the spot-on observation and authentic feel. Its stars know the scene that they send up inside out because they have lived it. They grew up MCing and DJing on pirate radio. “If you’re going to tie yourself to a recent British moment in history, you have to be accurate, authentic,” says Atalla. “They really are, so as a production company, we take the lead from them.” That comes down to their musical heroes – the likes of Wiley, Stormzy, Big Narstie and Craig David, artists the guys have now worked with on their live shows - their language and the clothes they wear. Nineties brands such as Reebok, Champion and Polo Sport make up their wardrobes and the guys scour eBay for era-appropriate trainers. It helps that the show has coincided with a resurgence of Nineties subculture; fashion and garage and grime are back in the charts and clubs.

But tapping into a cultural moment isn’t a guarantee for a hit and Roughcut has spent the last three years nuturing the talent. The original scripts were mostly improvised; now all the group get involved in the writing, particularly Stamp, with a firm guiding hand from Roughcut. Atalla says that the Kurupt FM boys were “amazed” when they told them that The Office was scripted and not just improvised. “With their YouTube stuff, there were some great jokes but they were too far apart, you need a tighter script.”

The nub is that they manage to make the characters sympathetic enough that we invest in them, or at least feel the bleak revelations that come out of their deluded but brilliant pieces to camera. We want to believe that Beats might concede that their beloved radio station actually only has a few hundred listeners and is unlikely to get more. Or that Grindah can one day admit that his mixed-race daughter Angel with definitely white Miche might not actually be his. It also helps that a lot of it is eminently quotable, not least deluded entrepreneur Chabuddy G’s scene-stealing lines: “People ask what does the ‘G’ stand for. I tell them: Gucci, Girls, Girth.”

Chabuddy G (Asim Chaudhry) (BBC/Roughcut)

Yet a seemingly niche show about the world of pirate radio stations was not an easy sell for Atalla to the BBC, despite his previous successes, but he was persistent. “I had a strong sense very quickly that it was something special. I took that almost evangelical surety I had towards the show to the BBC,” he says "Because I've been in this business a while, they have to listen to me about every four years."

His persistence paid off. A pilot was agreed, and when that topped EastEnders in the iPlayer viewing figures, the corporation commissioned a four-part first series and then a five-episode second series. They will begin work on a fourth series in the new year. The business side of things has also been sharpened up. The new series has a less “messy” transmission than the ones that have come before. It will go out weekly on iPlayer first and then BBC2, rather than in one block as it has done previously. “We’re trying to create that water-cooler moment,” says Petrie. They also have a large presence on social media; all the Kurupt FM guys are on Twitter and they are doing more press to appeal beyond millennial and Generation Y audience, hence this interview.

Though a resolutely British show, Bafta-nominated PJDN (Peter Kay’s Car Share pipped them to the post) has got international attention. Roughcut is in early talks in the States for a US remake, like was successfully done with The Office. Given that the show's music is so deeply rooted in the UK, Atalla says that the thinking is to make it around a DJ outfit than a garage one.

They have also reached some influential fans beyond the expected fan base, not least ITV primetime stalwarts Ant and Dec. “Dec’s quoted most of the series back to me at various parties,” says Atalla, who says he first realised that The Office was big when the tabloids got on board: “I remember seeing any piece of journalism about the corporate world and there was a picture of David Brent.” It’s clear he feels that this could be PJDN’s Brentian moment.

Director Jack Clough, Steve Stamp and producer Jon Petrie on set (BBC/Roughcut)

Yet the guys are painfully aware that it is harder to get a look in now in the post-Netflix and Amazon Prime world. “There’s no instant classic anymore,” says Atalla. “It’s more a slow burn, improving quality to help get the word out.” Petrie agrees: “There’s more noise now. For younger people, TV's just one part of their diet. For us it was a lot bigger.” Thanks to the rise in subscription services they are “fighting” with the US. “London and LA are very fluid at the high end of the comedy world,” says Atalla. PJDN is not, like Roughcut’s Cuckoo with its American big-name stars, “built” for an international audience, yet the producers believe it can be a huge hit.

They are acutely aware that of the hundreds of YouTube clips, pitches and scripts they receive, an idea with stellar potential does not come along that often. “It’s like the early rounds of The X Factor in our industry,” says Atalla. “There are people you come across and you want to say ‘please find a normal job, 10 years of unreturned phone calls are ahead of you’. You should never stop anyone getting into the creative industries but someone around them has to say whether there’s a diamond to be polished.”

Perhaps someone should give MC Grindah the message.

Watch the new series of People Just Do Nothing is on BBC Three and iPlayer from Wednesday August 17. Pre-order Series 1-3 now