Lost in translation
PEOPLE JUST DO NOTHING: BIG IN JAPAN | The Kurupt FM crew bring Brentford to Tokyo…
You start out in Brentford, just fucking around in a bedroom with some decks, so I guess Japan’s the logical next step!” Director Jack Clough is only half-joking. Taking People Just Do Nothing from an online short to a BBC Three series that ran for five years and won a Bafta, the cast and crew have done Comic Relief skits with Ed Sheeran, made a single with Craig David and played Glastonbury. So why not take on Tokyo?
“We basically just rented an Airbnb for a week and hashed out loads of ideas for a movie,” says Clough, taking on his first film after directing every episode of the cult series. “We wanted to do it for all the right reasons. And the more we chatted about Japan, the more it just felt right. We basically just wanted to watch this film, so we sort of had to make it…”
If you haven’t seen People Just Do Nothing, think The Office with more drum & bass (or Only Fools And Horses with more swearing) – a mockumentary about pirate radio station Kurupt
FM, and the four stoners who run it genuinely thinking an audience is listening. MC Grindah (Allan Mustafa) left Brentford at the end of the last series leaving behind his best friend DJ Beats (Hugo Chegwin), local dodgy dealer Chabuddy G (Asim Chaudhry) and idiot/dealer Steves (Steve Stamp). When one of Kurupt FM’s tracks gets picked up by an obscure Japanese game show, the crew get back together to try their luck at the international scene.
“Sometimes when a TV show becomes a film, it loses so much of its heart and soul,” says Clough. “We wanted to make sure it was a cinema-worthy experience, but used the same core crew from the show so we could keep it grounded and step things up in the right way.”
So is this the end of People Just Do Nothing (again), or the start of something bigger? “I mean, back in Brentford, I’d have never guessed Japan,” laughs Clough. “Maybe we’ll go to Mars next!”
ETA | 18 AUGUST / PEOPLE JUST DO NOTHING: BIG IN JAPAN OPENS IN TWO MONTHS.