It’s been nearly 15 years since an under-the-radar British mockumentary series called “The Office” crossed the Atlantic — launching star Ricky Gervais into the celebrity stratosphere and igniting NBC’s adaptation starring Steve Carell.
And if TV lightning strikes twice, there’s a good shot this same scenario will unfold for “People Just Do Nothing,” a BBC mockumentary series about the earnest-yet-misguided DJ rappers/MCs behind Kurupt FM — a threadbare pirate radio station in West London reaching tens of listeners from a dingy Brentford apartment complex.
The series, from “The Office” producer Ash Atalla, started life on YouTube as a series of videos before being scooped up by the BBC in 2015. Last weekend it won a coveted BAFTA award (for Best Scripted Comedy) and has a huge celebrity fan in singer/songwriter Ed Sheeran — all signs pointing toward a breakout moment when it makes its iTunes, Amazon and on-demand US premiere May 23 [It also airs on Viceland and streams on Netflix].
“That whole story, Ricky’s [‘The Office’] story, is a big inspiration to us,” says “People” co-creator Allan Mustafa, who plays series protagonist MC Grindah. “We grew up watching ‘The Office’ and loved it. Our show is a bit more of a slow burner, but winning the BAFTA it feels like maybe more people are watching and enjoying it.”
Over its first three seasons, “People” has charted the course of MC Grindah (real name: Tony Zografos) and his posse: DJ/sidekick Kevin “DJ Beats” (Hugo Chegwin); dim-bulb ecstasy addict Steven “Steves” Green (Steve Stamp); and Chabuddy G (Asim Chaudhry), their erstwhile pony-tailed manager, get-rich-quick schemer and legend in his own mind. There’s also Grindah’s wifty girlfriend, Miche (Lilly Brazier); their daughter, Angel; DJ Beats’ sensible girlfriend, Roche (Ruth Bratt); and Decoy (Daniel Sylvester Woolford), a quiet Kurupt FM insider who (it’s strongly hinted) is Angel’s real father.
“We always tonally went to the same thing as ‘The Office’ — we like that it was completely believable and that, for us, is where the comedy is,” says Stamp. “You can really believe our characters, so when something painful or awkward happens it’s like, ‘Ah, that’s real.’ ”
The core cast members grew up within a stone’s throw of each other. “Our generation is sort of 1998-2003,” Mustafa says. “Steve and Hugo had been DJs on pirate radio stations here and there and I used to MC on a pirate station — my friend ran a pirate station called Kurupt FM and that’s where I got the name from.
“Hugo and I used to make beats and smoke weed and watch comedy and it stemmed from there,” says Mustafa. “Steve was one of Hugo’s mates. We used to muck around on camera phones doing these little characters for ourselves and trade stories about our pirate radio days. We were doing YouTube [videos] for a couple years and it was really cult-y. We had maybe 20,000 views in two years. It wasn’t a lot, but Ash [Atalla] approached us.”
The group got a boost when Sheeran saw their YouTube videos and became a fan. “ ‘People Just Do Nothing’ has been a favorite of mine since the first series and keeps getting better,” Sheeran told The Post via e-mail. “They really are keeping UK garage and underground music culture alive on TV.”
While Sheeran hasn’t been on the show — “At the end of the day, the guys in the show are idiots and people wouldn’t know who they are,” Mustafa says — he did shoot a YouTube video with the “People” crew for Comic Relief. “Chabuddy gets them in the studio with Ed Sheeran; they essentially don’t know who he is or care who he is ’cause he’s not a hardcore underground MC,” Mustafa says. “He was a good sport. He let us terrorize him and do whatever we wanted.”