This programme contains strong language
And the Bafta goes to... People Just Do Nothing.
CHEERING
This is the madness.
Welcome to Kurupt FM.Welcome.Yeah?
In every town up and down the UK, there are a group of boys who,
literally, think that they are God's gift.
So, I'm a big fan of People Just Do Nothing.Aw!
It's like Spinal Tap for our culture.
He's not even...urban.
He's ginger, that's the whitest you can get.
It doesn't take you very long, especially if you were in
The Office, to go, "They like The Office."
Gucci, girls, girth. Hey-ay-ay!
There's my nan!
Pure Kuruption.Keep it Kurupt.
This literally came from nothing on YouTube.
It was just a group of mates.
That's another surreal moment, like, Japan?
That beautiful energy they've got
and then they've just given it to the world.
Brentford's amazing, man, like.
Home birth, so born and raised.
Yeah, it was, it was crazy. It was, it was magical.
Just worked our arses off.
Didn't even feel like we're working, cos we loved every day of it
and we got something out of it. Crazy.
RAPS:# Monday is the day that we roll
# Tuesday we take total control Wednesday take back the track
# Friday sit back relax
# Saturday we recommend
# You listen our track for the mix and blend, uh. #
I grew up next to Steve, like, two doors down.
Beats was, er...
He went to the same college as me
and he was one of the
hot producers on the scene.
I used to go round Hugo's house and he'd be making, he was into hip-hop
and I wanted to be a rapper.
Yeah, so let's show him round innit, like.
Yeah, show him round the manor like.
Obviously got the, er, blocks there and that.
I think Brentford is so integral to the...
..what it is that makes the characters feel frustrated.
It's like they're...
Them being on this,
the outskirts of London, that Zone 4 kind of mentality.
I've got goals. If you've got goals, you don't need a job.
If you know where your dreams are, you don't need to live a reality.
I was signing on sometimes and then, sometimes working at call centres
and sometimes doing other things, that, you know, I can't mention.
I first met Seapa at the call centre.
We kind of kicked it off really
cos we had, like, similar interests.
We were both into hip-hop, we both liked to have a cheeky little
smoke now and again during lunch breaks.
Seapa got a job there, he got me a job there
and then, we got Asim a job there.
And we used to take it off record and just prank call people all day.
He was just pretty much a joker the whole time.
"Hello, there. My name's RZA, I'm calling on behalf of Wu-Tang Clan.
"All I want to do is just tell you..."
And then they're like, "OK, cool."
I remember me and Hugo used to, whenever we ordered a pizza,
we would put on a voice, create this whole character
and this whole thing and then when the,
the delivery guy came, we would dress up in weird outfits.
Calling up QVC and they'd be like, "Yeah, have you got, um, Splintex?"
Like, I didn't do any of this. Them, them guys done it all. I was,
I was the guy that just used to sit back, just watch it all.
Now, looking back at it,
obviously doing all these characters together...
It's just another great thing of, like, testing your improv
and testing your wit.
HE LAUGHS Maybe it made us better actors.
What about your music? Are you going to stream that via inter,
internets and that?Mate, we're not a, um, "internet" radio station,
we're very much FM-based. We're just luring them in.
We're going global, but you will very much need to
be in Brentford to be able to catch Kurupt FM.Yeah.
Between the ages of... I'd say 17 and...
20, I was, like, heavily involved in pirate radio.
And you're locked into the sounds of the legendary Kurupt FM.
Hold tight, the phone out crew, inside, yeah?
Phone line number to ring...
English music, like, before the internet,
pirate radio was, like, was the taste-maker, that was...
That was the Spotify playlist.
You're now listening to the best MC in the galaxy right now, yeah.
There was no X Factor for us, there was no...
There weren't nothing like that.
We didn't go to, like, stage school or Brit School or nothing like that.
You didn't know it was in someone's kitchen or in, like, a crack house.
Guys climbing on rooftops to put up aerials and there's, sort of,
police, like, raids and all of the sort of dodginess around it.
Course it's illegal, mate, it's part of the beauty of it.
When we sort of came up with the idea of doing like a comedy
set around it,
it felt like it was very important to represent that world accurately.
I love the fact that it's done by people with a real love for it,
you know.
Cos I think it's when you really love something,
you can take the piss out of it, you know?
The authenticity, like, the music and the clothes,
that's super important to us.
Cos if I saw that,
if I was watching a comedy about pirate radio or about something
that I'd come from and it wasn't right, I'd be like,
"Oh, this is shit."
My older brothers were involved in, like, pirate radio when, like,
when I was kid.
So when I, when I first saw the show, I was like, "Oh, yeah, yeah.
"That's my brother's mate so-and-so, that's that guy, OK, cool."
The first time I actually watched People Just Do Nothing, yeah,
and I saw the radio set up and that,
I know it was a joke, it's a joke thing, it's comedy and all that,
but that's how radio was in some dodgy or some,
or some kitchen in some flat somewhere.
The sort of detail of, like, all of the ashtrays
and all of the, like, mess that would come with
a pirate radio station.
Realism is really important to all of us.
Come through, come through. Enter.
So this is the, er, main studio area, yeah.
Got the, er, the main hub, yeah.
It keeps everything going, this does.
That was the set up though. I remember looking at this,
like, this is the most authentic scene.
Kurupt FM, innit? The rest are irrelevant.
You all know the rest, like.
So the webisodes were shot by Ben Murray and Asim.
We all sat on the footage for, like, probably a year without doing anything and then I was like,
"Boys, you know what? I'm going to edit, I'm going to edit that together."
Hello. Hello.
Hello.FROM SPEAKER: Hello. Can I take your order please?
Yes, bruv, can I get one double cheeseburger...Yeah.
..and one cheeseburger?All right.
When we did upload it to YouTube, people 100% thought it was real
and we used to get loads of hate comments.
We used to get loads of, "Fucking chavs, get a job!"
So then we started sort of thinking, oh, if we're going to do it,
let's do it properly and have, like, a bit of a plan and stuff.
They would turn up at my house and I'd be like, "Oh, fucking hell,
"we've got to do this again today, like."
I'd die for radio, this is what I'm going to be doing all my life,
do you know what I mean? Yeah, I'll die for radio with you.
And we felt like we were doing,
we were sort of onto something.
I think we thought of new things just by improving.
So in one episode, I'd be like,
"Oh, yeah, because obviously my missus, like."
I'll be ten minutes, Michelle. No, no.
At the end of that day, we're like, "Right, OK, so we're going to have
"to find a missus for you for the next episode."
So I know Steve cos we both went to uni together in Brighton
and then after uni, we started dating each other,
I believe is the word.
Michelle! Michelle!
I think we met the boys at the station,
like, at White City Station or something, and basically,
they all behaved like they'd never spoken to a girl before.
I think I just turned up pretty stoned and I didn't say
a word to her. I was like, "You all right?"
And then we did this scene where the boys are, like, sat at the table
and I come in with Angel.
Where are the teas?
I told you half an hour ago, where are the teas? Do you know
what I mean? What are you having? You having a couple, couple of sugars?Yeah, a couple.
Couple of sugars for him. Can I get a juice?
No, no, juice.
And Seapa said, "Erm, can I have a cup of tea?"
Listen, you know how I like it, how do I like it, darling?
Black. Exactly.
We decided, oh, this could be like a little, erm, storyline
that's like unsaid throughout the whole thing.
Deep down somewhere Grindah must question what's going on with Angel.
I know what you're thinking actually.
She's a little bit darker than I am but that's because,
erm, my great-grandad on my mother's side was a quarter Cypriot,
so we've all got a sort of exotic twist, don't we?
Yeah, yeah.
And I used a lot of fake tan when I was pregnant,
so I think it filtered through the skin and, er...Exactly.
Side-effects.
I don't know, I don't know where any of it came from, I just did it
and just, this character was born.
# Amazing grace How sweet the sound... #
Sorry, can we not have the piano please? It's just, it's not ri...
It's...horrible, yeah.
Miche to me, again,
Miche reminds me of a lot of girls I used to go to school with.
Do you think social media shows your true self?
Yeah, definitely because it's not me speaking to you right now,
sort of saying any old thing that comes in my head, it's me sort of
thinking about what I'm saying, deleting it, writing it again,
deleting it, and then posting it to the world so, yeah, it's...
it's a more accurate me.
We started noticing that a few people had been tweeting about it,
like, you know, a few, like, celebrities found out about it,
people in the industry, so we're like, OK.
It's not just our friends on Facebook, like.
I downloaded the software that would send out the episodes to all these people.
Well, so I've, I've...
I've actually got - is it useful? I've got the email that I got sent.
One of those people I know was Jon Petrie.
It says, "Inspired by The Office, Tower Block Dreams
"and Alan Partridge, mockumentary following people of various
"social backgrounds who all have two things in common -
"they live in Brentford and they just do nothing."
We got an email from Jon Petrie.
We obviously didn't know anything about him, but he said he worked
for Roughcut, what's owned by Ash Atalla.
And I'm pretty sure I would have said who produced The Office,
cos I thought that might help sort of get them in.
That's probably the best thing you could say to us,
because we're so obsessed with The Office.
I guess it's got, you know let's face it,
it's got a little bit of DNA from The Office, the mockumentary.
What happens on tour stays on tour. Stays on tour.Yeah.
And it just means that anything goes, sort of thing.
Exactly, fuck you, Mum, you bitch, I can do whatever I want now.
Yeah, fuck off, Mrs Bates, you can't control him any more.
Yeah, you dickhead.
Oh.
How is your mum anyway? Yeah, really good, really good.
Is she all right, yeah?Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, there's... There's no way you couldn't,
if you are aware of David Brent,
there's no way you couldn't see that influence in there.
And that's the highest form of praise cos they're really good, you know.
I remember thinking, you know,
there are three or four standout comedy characters here.
How much are we charging on these?
Oh, got to put them down as about 80, I'd say.
18?
80.
80?
Yeah, 80. They're limited edition, mate, I've signed 'em.
Pounds?Yes, 80 pounds.
Yeah, no, it's just...
For me, my favourite thing about Grindah
is that he doesn't question himself.
He's always right.
There is... There is no room for him to be wrong about anything
and he is the fearless leader of the group.
He's such an awful person, Grindah.
I mean, he's a genuinely awful person
with very few redeeming features, and that's quite rare, I think.
Look at me, I look perfectly fine, do you know what I mean, like?
After three months your clothes start cleaning themselves.
Do you know what I'm saying?
The thing I like about Steves is that Steves is the hippy
of the group for me and he's just happy to be there.
There was always dudes who were just in the studio
and they were just there smoked out, they were just there hanging out.
But they loved to do that.
They were there all day.
I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for the drugs.
I would say that much.
I'm imagining he may or may not at some point
have been high in real life.
I can't say for sure.
If he hasn't, he's basically De Niro, yeah.
I mean, the bit where they're persuading him
to run across the road.
Go on, Steve, go on. Come on, Steven.
And he gets hit by the car.
CHANTING: Stevie, Stevie, Stevie.
Oh, shit, fuck.
Steves!Steves, you all right, mate?
Doesn't faze him at all, he's still laughing, he's still happy.
Oh, that is...
Wey!
Go on, Steve straight into the shop, mate.
Fucking hell, that's the best one yet.
For me, Beats, yeah, I like his... I like his loyalty.
Where have you been, man? I've been worried sick about you?
Sorry, man, I was getting a tattoo.
What?Yeah.
What, is that me?
Oh, my God!
That is beautiful, I love it. Yeah, yeah.
Your heart breaks for Beats a little bit because,
because he is a really nice bloke, you know?
I think he's a very decent person, Beats,
trying to do the right thing but held back by being a moron.
Right, well, thank you for coming in to see us today, Kevin.
And thank you for having me in your wonderful establishment.
Yes, watching him do the job interview.
Er, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Well, my name's Kevin Bates, AKA Beats. I co-run a pirate
radio station called Kurupt FM, 108.9 on the dial, best believe.
And he still thinks... He thinks he's smashed it.
Do you want me to repeat the question?
I'm just going to stop you there actually, Christopher,
cos I need to head to the toilet if that's all right.
OK, well, actually... Don't worry, I know where it is.
Move, move.
Always leave them wanting more.
Standard, job done.
And he thinks, he thinks he will have completely
devastated the room, you know.
This sort of came not fully formed at all
but just with the elements in place
and then it cut to Chabuddy G.
Right, my name's Chabuddy G, entrepreneur, er, people come to me
when they want stuff, when they want people dealt with.
Um, landlord, um, community officer,
agony aunt, agony uncle, brother, friend, lover.
Whatever you want, you come to Chabuddy G, you know what I mean.
He's a great character, I think he's...
He's a great part of me and of course cos so much of it is
based on my dad, so it's like when I'm doing Chabuddy,
sometimes I just think of my dad and my dad's a lovable sweet guy.
Yeah, Chabuddy's a great...
That's a great character.
And, yeah, he can sort of exist anywhere.
If tomorrow Chabuddy said, "Oh, I'm going to be a circus performer",
you'd be like, "Yeah, I'll buy that."
Because he'll just give anything a go.
I think that's one of the reasons why he's so likeable
because he'll give it a go,
he will fuck up though, you know he's going to mess up.
Two in one - barbecue grill,
baby's cot.
Just pull that bit.
Baby's cot.
Chabuddy is a definition of God loves a trier.
You know that bit of dust at the end of peanuts, yeah,
basically that's the best part.
Everybody loves that bit, OK?
There was a manufacturing fault where all the bags were filled
with nothing but peanut dust.
My uncle managed to get like 3,000 boxes of it, yeah, smuggled
to the UK by smuggling himself inside a bloody crate, mental.
Um, he got deported unfortunately
but the boxes stayed with me.
I call it peanut dust.
In terms of like real authentic kind of South Asian characters
on British television, I mean, I just can't think of any, you know?
I mean, that's why I think, looking back now, I think
Chabuddy was quite important and quite needed in that time, because
there were so many people who thought we aren't being represented.
And of course you're not going to go to Chabuddy and go, "Oh, that's me,"
but like I said, you know Chabuddies all around the place
and you feel seen, you feel like that's my uncle, that's my mate.
The key to being a good salesman
is knowing how to sell your product, OK?
For example, how much would you give me for this watch?
Oh, fuck.
It's got a dodgy strap, it must have fallen off.
He does that horrible thing when he's about to go
and kiss a woman, you know any woman he's going to,
and he does this ridiculous sort of closed eyes tongue out
kind of like he's just watched too many terrible films, you know?
I think we work really well together as a team.
I think we work really well together too.
It's... It's just beautiful.
Let's not do that!
I was excited to meet them just because, you know,
their video was so funny and then I sort of, I think as a producer
when you've seen something you're just desperate to sort of
work with people and you get excited about it.
So we're like, "OK, cool, we're going to go in there
"but we're going to be chilled out."
And we were like mad into, like, underground hip-hop
and all this stuff where they tell you about the industry trying to rip you off.
So we thought, like, "Yeah, yeah, we're going to go in there..."
I think like six of us went in there dressed in tracksuits and that.
And then I think I probably got about two minutes out
and then they all started talking to each other and talking over me
and, you know, drinking tea and just ignoring me.
Yeah! Yeah, no, yeah. I mean, I guess six guys turning up
in tracksuits talking over each other, probably quite chaotic.
I really thought I'd be able to tame them but I just haven't.
I think Ash loves it, to be fair.
We were like, "Wow", and then, you know, saying we can get you a pilot
and we're going to push for a pilot and all of that stuff,
it was just like unreal.
Oh, this is the BBC, come to do a documentary about pirate radio.
Yeah, yeah, you all right, boys? You all right, yeah?
Steve told us that they would probably just improvise it
and they would kind of write pointers
as to what each scene would do.
But they looked at our beat sheet and were just like,
you just sent us like a two-page Word document
that barely makes sense.
To sort of try and prove our point we showed them...
I think Ash had a book of Office scripts,
so we gave it to Steve and he sort of took it away and read it
and I think kind of quite quickly cottoned on to the fact
that it would be very useful to have a script.
Trial and error I think is the best way to describe
the first, like the pilot script.
We did the pilot and we did the edit for it and I wanted to get the edit
to a place before they saw it, that it was in some sort of shape.
I remember getting it sent and being like, what is this?
It's like an advert. It's cut so fast.
We had cut out some bits that he liked
and it wasn't quite as good so he came to the edit,
I think it was in Shoreditch, and as I remember it he threw me across
the room and started punching me until I was in this wheelchair.
That's how I remember it.
Ash says that I turned up with a baseball bat
but that's not true.
He might actually deck me.
Um, but, yeah, see what he says, see what lies he comes up with.
I learned how to be more diplomatic as time went on, I think.
It's another thing I've learnt, which is great.
We did the pilot, the pilot wasn't great.
It wasn't exactly the style we wanted
and of course that's why we went out and looked for another director.
I remember like interviewing quite a few,
and Jack was like at the bottom of the pile,
at the end of the day or something.
It's like the first impression of the guys that I had
was from the YouTube stuff.
So the worry was, OK, well, what are they actually going to be like?
You know, you look at Seapa as Grindah, or Sniper as he was then,
and it's like, OK, is he going to be a dickhead?
How much of a dickhead is he actually going to be?
We're sitting at Roughcut outside, and I remember him turning up
and this high-pitched laugh.
And, yeah, he was like, "Hehehehehe" and laughing
and dropping his pen around and we thought, what the fuck?
And like really posh voice from like Hampstead or something.
He has this weird high-pitched laugh that's almost like a tic.
We'll just bang him out quickly and move on to the next one.
Yeah!
And then he sat down and he was like,
he'd watched all of the YouTube stuff, knew it inside out.
He was a massive Office fan, he loves the mockumentary format,
and just the fact that he was a bit weird, in a good way,
do you know what I mean?
So it was like this awesome sort of meeting of like going,
"Ah, OK, yeah, these guys are actually...
"They're not their characters."
This will be a lot of fun.
He is the type of person that doesn't eat, sleep or have sex.
And that's what you want in a director!
If we go in from...
Oops. If we go in...
LAUGHTER
We tried to just show a little bit of the home life a bit more
and just take it out of radio and then it gave us a bit more
opportunity to tell different stories and different plots as well.
The difference between the stuff that they did on their own
and the TV stuff was really building out that world
and really making it a show
that felt about more friendship than pirate radio.
I think it's really important to have the home life as well,
because you get that contrast between this kind of persona
they have in Kurupt FM and at home.
Right, sweet. Were you going to say bye to me?
Yeah.OK.
See... See ya.
Love you!Yeah.Love you! Yes, I know.
Love you.Yes, love, you've said it three times.
Love you, bubby!Stop shouting and screaming, people just...
Just say it back.
Yeah, love you, bye.Aw.
I think we all love Chabuddy's relationship with Aldona.
She doesn't clean like this for me.
Oh, I forgive you.
It makes it so much more believable
and it gives you this different dynamic of the show.
This little one for you.
OK. So would you like to just hold your baby how you think
a baby would be held.
So... Just.
Just support the neck, Kevin.
I think that's what makes the series special.
It's seeing the whole world that they live in rather than,
it's not just about pirate radio.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you our new daughter.
Fresh out the vagina.
Still warm as well.Yeah, yeah.
It is quite chaotic on set and I think that's part of our magic.
Like, if you come on to a People Just Do Nothing set,
one, it will be the funnest job you ever do, one million...
Ask anyone who's worked on the show.
Dream come true to you, innit?
Do you want me to repeat the question?
No, you're all right, I'm dying for a fucking piss.
They've probably got a website as well, innit?
Probably what kicked it all off for them.
They've probably got a website as well, innit?
Sorry!
The main thing is obviously to make the TV show
but it's to have fun, like, what's the point if it's not fun.
100!This is it!
100, wahey!
Aldona!
Right, shall I do a little two?
Do you like my dance?
Action!
I wouldn't say there's a lack of discipline.
Fuck off, John!
She's leaving you.
No, mate, she's here illegally, I do all of her paperwork and that.
Oh, thank God for that.
HE FARTS
Cut there.
How you save them!
There's, like, yeah, it's like who can make it funnier,
and then there's just a lot of Seapa especially like screaming
in everyone's faces, but that's why they're funny.
That's perfect, nice one.
Looks good, don't it?
Yeah, really good.
Sorry!
Looks ridiculous. For fuck's sake!
Something that really helped early on with promotion for the show
and getting the boys out there was that they had the music side
and they could genuinely do it, they could genuinely MC
and genuinely make music.
# G-R-I-N-D, G-R-I-N-D
# Baddest MC in the industry
# B to the E to the A to the T
# To the S and we are the best
# B to the E to the A to the T
# To the S and we are the best
# K to the U, R, P to the T
# Kurupt FM is the family... #
And when he jumps on the mic, it's just like, my God, where did
that come from, what kind of energy are you bringing to the mic?
And he's a real proper MC.
I'm kicking man like Van Damme
Who's on the mic with that rough slang
Flying kicks all over Jet Li
And a triple backflip off a jetski
More said the Jet Li come ninja suh
Lyrical karate mixed with kung-fu
What you gonna say now, what you gonna do
When Beats and Grindah are coming for you?
I think very often comedy doesn't do music very well.
And it certainly doesn't do that sort of music very well,
cos why would it? You know, cos most people who have been
to Oxford or Cambridge or RADA don't really know about spitting bars.
I do.
I guess music, like I said, was my first passion,
so that would have been my childhood dream, you know,
performing on stage and stuff.
So I used to be the rap battle champion in my college,
West Thames and Isleworth. Um, very proud of it, still got the trophy.
Um, I use it as a doorstop now but it's still very close to my heart.
It's what I grew up kind of wanting to do at least for a...
A few years of my life, I was kind of like, loved DJing and was kind
of obsessed with the idea of like playing out and stuff like that.
So when I was younger, it was all about, you know, garage music,
in school it was the, you know, like,
I guess a way to bond with people
and then just felt like part of a sub-culture cos I got some decks.
Steve would come round and use my decks.
It was like we got an opportunity to DJ somewhere.
Somebody said, "Do you want to DJ as Kurupt FM?"
And we were like, "Yeah, that could be quite funny."
And then we did Boomtown Festival, and when we did that show
the tent was packed, people were pushing the barriers down to get in.
Then they're almost like, when they come on the festival circuit,
that felt like they were... They kind of stepped out of the box.
I mean, the live stuff, yeah, for me definitely is
like a teenage fantasy thing.
Are you ready?
# Yeah, yeah, say it like that
# No, no, not like that... #
Comedy and music, we are the outsiders of both.
I've seen what happens at their shows and it is ridiculous.
Like, they're selling out like, you know, big capacity venues.
Are you ready?
I think a big turning point for us was probably
when they went on 1Xtra and they got Craig David on the show.
So the first time I met Kurupt FM was
got a phone call from Mr Jam. Um, he was at BBC 1Xtra,
they were doing a Kurupt FM show.
Fully here.Full 60 minutes live, take over.
Trust me.
Kurupt FM.Yes, 108.9 on your dial.
Let's do this.
And he said, "Look, do you want to come in
"and maybe play any new music you got or just come in and vibe?"
They absolutely knew what they were doing getting Craig David, um,
involved in that 60 minutes,
because you know Craig David literally is for all the lovers
out there and particularly all the garage lovers out.
But I opened the door
and I walked in and I felt this, like, that real love in the room.
Craig David?I know.
That's not your son.
I saw him in the car park.
Ooh, ooh, hey! Craig David.
I'm gassed forCraig David, I'm gassed for Craig David!
You can see them slipping out of character ever so slightly
cos they were getting so excited.
# I mean me and her didn't mean to break the rules
# I weren't trying to play your mum and dad for fools... #
That energy on the actual video when we're just jumping around smiling,
that was the teenager in us gassed.
# Fill me in
# Why were you creeping round
# Oh, yeah.
# Fill me in... #
And then I went into Fill Me In over Where Are You Now,
the Justin Bieber, Skrillex, Diplo tune, instrumental,
and something hit because they were like,
"Brother, fuck, my phone is starting to blow up heavy, like."
You know what, yo.
Something like that.
You could feel it, man, it was such a beautiful moment, man.
I was so gassed to kind of be part of that and so
appreciate how they brought me in.
Yeah, he had a few years out in the cold which,
which he's been very honest about and, you know, around that time,
what, 2015, 2016, he had the most glorious comeback.
I was like, I'd been working on new music
but hadn't put like anything out for a little while,
so it was almost like this defining point that really did change
the whole game for me and it set the tone for releasing albums
and going on a reunion tour which I hadn't done since the first albums,
like 16 years. So like literally it was like, wow, we're back on this again.
Oh, man.
Who's sweaty?
When a show like People Just Do Nothing or Kurupt FM starts
to get sort of momentum, you know, then the phone goes
and there are other, you know, requests.
Richard Curtis called me up, was like, "Can I get Kurupt FM on?"
Idiot.
It's things like Comic Relief, I guess.
That's a big moment, if you do comedy.
Comic Relief opened up the world of celebrities
and they kind of go, well, we could get you Kate Moss
or Dame Judi Dench or Paul McCartney.
It's so top secret they don't even bloody know who it is.
Bruv, but we know it's definitely going to be an award-winning artist, right?
Well, let's just say it's one of the biggest urban artists in the world.
Chabuddy saying I've got one of the greatest urban artists,
so you see that excitement and they're thinking who is it, who is it?
Oh, my God and it could be this person, it could be that person. All these huge stars.
It might even be Skepta, you know, I heard he's been out in America.
Ooh, you're joking.Yeah, man. Oh, can't wait to crack America.
Same.We deserve it, I think. Hey, guys.
Hi, I'm Ed. You all right, mate.
How you doing, mate? You all right?
Hello, mate.
Ed Sheeran was amazing.
Like, cos he loved the show, he did know the show from the YouTube days,
I think, so he'd been a fan for a long, long time.
Guys, don't you know who this is?
It's only bloody Ed Shearer.
Sheeran.
It's only bloody Ed Sheeran. Yeah.
And he said it's Ed Shearer. It's so fucking good.
Um, yeah, cos even Chabuddy G doesn't REALLY know who he is,
that's the thing. He's really excited about someone whose name
his doesn't even fucking know properly, you know.
Who's that?
This is it, this is...
This is the guy, this, is it? That's it?
Yeah, he's...For fu...
You said he was going to be one of the biggest urban artists in the world.
He is, he's urban. How is he an urban artist?
For fuck's sake, he's not even urban. Just...
He's ginger, that's the whitest you can get.
With obviously, the whole thing was us taking the piss out of him,
he loved it. He was... He was having a good time, I think.
# I'm just a boy with a one-man show
# No university, no degree, but Lord knows... #
This doesn't sound like music.
Yeah, he sounds too happy.
Yeah.Keeps catching my eye.
# I'll be sitting here with a song that I wrote
# Saying love can change the world in a moment, but what do I know? #
Bloody hell.If I'm being honest, mate, it's a bit depressing.
Yeah. Um, right. I'm just trying to think of a way you can make it less shit.
Er...OK, action!
# I'll be sitting here with a song that I wrote
# Song that I wrote
# Song that, song that, song, song, song, song
# Song that I wrote... #
Let's take it to Africa.
Some of them are low, some of them are low key,
This ain't apartheid, it's a party
Everybody come follow we
And check out the stars on my real MC,
Some of them are low, some of them are low key,
Some of them I like, some of them I likey.
# Ain't got a soapbox I can stand upon
# God gave me his sta... # Hold the mic like a lyrical gun.
No, no, sorry no, no, this is...
I mean this is offensive, this is offensive. I'm done.
Eddy, we've still got the spear throwing scene.
Sorry.The hunting scene, me and you.
No.Serengeti.
What's up with him?
Don't know, I don't think he likes charity.So selfish.
We started to pick up some nominations as well.
Being nominated for a Bafta was just...
Yeah, it was amazing, and genuinely it just sort of felt like validation.
And you're like, holy shit, that's real.
And then you're sitting there and it's like heart pounding
and it's like, OK, "Nominations are blah blah blah blah blah."
Just being at the Baftas alone is just crazy.
Like, Idris Elba came up to me and said hello.
We were nominated against Fleabag
and everyone thought, well, Fleabag's going to fucking win that, of course.
And the Bafta goes to...
..People Just Do Nothing.
And then when we won it was just a completely surreal moment, you know?
Well, this is madness.
Shout out everyone that believed in us, big up Roughcut
for helping us do this.
This literally came from nothing on YouTube.
When you watch back that clip, like, you can tell everyone's
like scared to even go near the mic to even say thank you, you know.
Stevie.I don't know what else to say, really.
I was super proud of all of us that day, like.
You know when people come up here and they say,
we never expected to win it. Well, we did expect to win it.
When we saw the nominations we thought,
"There's no way Fleabag's going to win that, it's definitely us."
That night, I imagined if I won a Bafta that I'd go nuts
and go to a celebrity party afterwards.
Everyone else went to the afterparty and at 12, I just,
"Do you know what? I'm getting a cab home."
I just lay there in bed still in my suit, just looking at the ceiling.
Just wanting to actually feel the moment.
You know, to win sort of the biggest comedy prize in,
that you can win in this country, for a show about pirate radio
with amateurs, and I mean that with love,
was, you know, a really proud moment, massively.
Moments like that kind of make you see it as like something
a bit more serious, maybe.
The thing that won the Bafta has still got the same integrity to,
you know, without using a boring word, you know,
but it's still got the same integrity about what the show is
that it had presumably three years before, you know, and I like that.
Winning a Bafta is I think a really big deal,
especially if you haven't come from, you know, that sort of blue blood
lineage of like British comedy, which let's just be honest,
it definitely exists.
Thanks very much, Bafta, the people behind me,
this is the proudest show of my whole career. I love these guys
and if any of you want any drugs, we'll be selling it by the bar.
See you.
Pure Kuruption.
Keep it Kurupt!
Talk of the film started at sort of after series three with the Bafta
and then it took a long time, as it often does
to sort of get things moving.
And then, like, Ash...
..called us into his office, said there's an opportunity to do a film.
We were like, "I don't know..."
Everybody knows that if you take a television show
and make a film out of it, it can be a risk. It can.
Unless we get like a really good idea,
I don't want to do like some cheap film to cash in on the series.
And then we sat in a room with Jack, John
and all us boys for a few days,
and just started throwing around ideas.
John was the one who came up with Japan as a concept.
A lot of our brains were ticking, going,
we can spend some time in Japan, that'd be pretty sick.
And then we thought, no-one's going to OK this. That's a lot of money.
I think the thought of the boys in Japan fills with me
with excitement but also dread.
Do you wanna watch Fast and Furious at the exact same time?
I'd love nothing more.
Three, two, one.
Can't take him anywhere.
It's not easy managing Kurupt.
Any sane manager would have quit a long time ago, but not me.
Mark, apparently their music is being used on a TV show in Japan.
It's bloody batshit mental, mate!
One of their tracks has become super famous on a Japanese game show.
It was an opportunity to see them dealing with fame.
Wow, that is insane. Konnichiwa.
Wow, that looks delicious.Yeah. A brown egg in.
How's that?I don't like it. Argh, I don't.
What we out here for?What's it look like we're out here for?
Do you know what I'm saying? We're out here to get a record deal.
Look at us.Yeah.
You've got to go where the music takes you.
Like, er, Brentford, Ipswich and now Japan.Exactly.
Tok-y-o!!!
Konnichi wa, bitches!
Youdo need to be there to support your partner, you know,
it's important even if they say they don't want you there.
You guys can call me Taka. A&R manager.
So what we want to do, some promo work, TV shows, radio,
and then a big concert.
I would like to show you a little bit of what we have to offer.
RAGGA-STYLE RAP
Ragga rap.
Ah, do you wanna translate that for them?
The good thing about Kurupt FM is that no matter how big
the showcase is, there's always going to be an element of,
kind of pathetic kind of degrading element to it.
It was like the last thing that we needed to do I guess is to see them,
what would happen if they did achieve something.
You can't do everything without me.
Well, we seem to be doing OK, right?
Taka's trying to push me out.
He's going to make himself a very dangerous enemy.
Bang boys? Yes, it's our new name just for now.
There's no bands that sound like radio stations, are there?
Yeah, but there's no bands that sound like a paedophile ring either.
Yeah, it doesn't sound like a paedophile ring, it sounds like we bang people in the face.
What the fuck are we even doing here?
This ain't what Kurupt FM's about.
This is bigger than Kurupt FM, bruv, look at it.
Huh? Huh?Yeah.Oh, you want me, yeah? Oh, you want me off the leash.
Free hit, I'm waiting for it. Come on, boy, hit me.
Just make sure that your dreams come true!
The film was sort of the perfect end to just an amazing journey
and it was...
Yeah, it was properly magical out in Tokyo
and kind of sort of celebrating with the guys how far we'd come.
The best thing about it is being there with like, you know,
your best mates.
It almost didn't feel like we were doing the show,
it was like something completely new.
We started on YouTube, on our own, as mates,
and suddenly we're standing in Japan filming a film. That's nuts, man.
Kurupt FM, love it or just lump it, basically.
I think it's amazing. Yeah, I think it's absolutely brilliant.
And that sort of thing is inspiring to people, you know.
When things like that happen, it's inspiring to me
and it's like a...
It's like a bit of a shake up and a reset to remind you
like, right, anything is actually possible.
And I kind of love that because I think that shows
the breadth of talent in this country.
And I think other people, all they need is one person to do it
and then they're like, "Oh, so that's OK, we can do that."
We are living in a world, like, you know,
nothing about us without us and, you know,
you have to have the right to tell a story.
You know, and it wasn't just some twat who'd been to RADA
kind of going, "Oh, I bet this sort of jungle MC sounds like this."
No. Nothing wrong with RADA.
I just think it's really important for everybody to be able to have
a voice in any space that they choose to in the creative field.
Everyone should feel that their story could be heard
and we should all be open to listening to them,
because they're probably a lot funnier than the stories
that have already been told over and over and over again.
They need each other, those guys.
They need each other and they have each other
and that's one of the nicest things about it.
It sounds so cheesy but they have brought, you know,
a huge amount of joy to my life and I consider to this day,
I consider them all to be very, very good friends.
I'm so fortunate to have been a part of this.
I loved working with them.
We are like family and it's that kind of thing of, like,
we're also quite protective of each other.
I have a real like...
A real Beats and Grindah bond with Seapa. Like, he is my best mate
and, you know, I speak to him every day no matter what.
No secrets, like he's...
Yeah, he's a G, and um...
..yeah, I don't know why I'm getting emotional, it's weird.
Yeah, it makes me feel a bit emotional actually
cos it's like, cos you don't really often...
Well, I don't often like look back and kind of take stock or whatever
of what's happened, but it's kind of...
Considering it was all an accident, like, it's a mad journey to go on.
It's not every day you get to do something with your, like,
closest friends and that thing becomes like successful, you know.
We've sort of become close through this process of like working on
this show and doing all these crazy things together.
We'll always look back over these ten years and I think we just...
We'll be proud that, you know, like we did make something from nothing.
Following your passion and your dream and being lucky enough to work
in something that you love doing,
that's lucky in itself. That's like, you've won the lottery there.
But doing that surrounded by your friends
and being able to take the piss and not take it too seriously,
and keep each other in check and those egos,
make sure there's no ego in it,
and make sure it's just fun, that's...
Honestly, like, I am so thankful every day for that.
Kurupt FM, innit, the rest are irrelevant, like.
Kurupt FM, innit. The rest are irrelevant, like.
Kurupt F... I can't even say it.
How's it go?
Kurupt FM, the rest are irrelewant.
Kurupt FM, innit.The rest are irrelevant, like.
That's a slogan.It is.
Don't need to say it's a slogan, just let them hear us saying it
all the time then they'll get it.