Wednesday, May 14, 2014
People Just Do Nothing, BBC iPlayer, review: 'impressive'
BBC director general Tony Hall recently announced that BBC Three is to close and continue only in internet form. And so People Just Do Nothing, which has premiered "exclusively" on the BBC's iPlayer catch-up service ahead of "full" transmission in September, felt like a taste of the future. Will we miss the channel? It seems unlikely. Those who point to how BBC Three nurtured young talent rarely acknowledge how woefully substandard much of the channel's original programming was. And the BBC's inevitable thirst for fresh ideas will no doubt ensure that other, more discerning avenues will open up for upcoming programme makers.
So, what practical difference did People Just Do Nothing premiering on iPlayer make to my viewing experience? Well, none whatsoever – not least because I streamed it via my television. Either way it was thoroughly enjoyable; a spoof documentary about a Brentford-based drum'n'bass pirate radio station, Kurupt FM, that's run by a bunch of delusional numpties. It wasn't the most sparklingly original of comedies, but it was a lot funnier than much of what passes for comedy on BBC Three. Particularly impressive given that it was created by a team of unknowns who were originally talent-spotted after posting some of their comedy ideas online.
A more sophisticated version of the short pilot aired as part of the Feed My Funny strand last year, this was all the better for being polished up: the writing tighter, the acting a little more street, the west London patois deeper and more convincing. Plotwise there was not a lot to it beyond the standard mockumentary, but the characters worked well: Grindah (Allan Mustafa), a classic messianic no-hoper; Beats, his dense as a fogbank sidekick (Hugo Chegwin); Steves (Steve Stamp), a blissed-out vacuum brain who likes to keep his head "happy" with any and every drug that comes his way; and Chabuddy G (Asim Chaudry), an entrepreneurial meathead who will chance his arm at anything to make a buck.
Entertaining, and absolutely of its time, People Just Do Nothing certainly serves up some good laughs and I look forward to the next three parts. In the end, an iPlayer debut seems entirely appropriate for a show aimed directly at BBC Three's 18-to-30-year-old target audience who, as the channel's fate suggests, do most of their viewing online these days anyway.
Source : http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/568414/s/3a656d3c/sc/7/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Cculture0Ctvandradio0Ctv0Eand0Eradio0Ereviews0C10A8288160CPeople0EJust0EDo0ENothing0EBBC0EiPlayer0Ereview0Eimpressive0Bhtml/story01.htm
