Skip to main content

People Just Do Nothing

'People Just Do Nothing' - BBC Three

‘People Just Do Nothing’ is a BBC Three programme based on a pirate radio station called ‘Kurupt FM’; it follows a group of lads who are trying to make it into the grime music scene. The target audience for this show is for “millennials mostly” (Newall, 2016) so young people aged around 18-25, mainly due to the tone of the piece being about the grime music scene which has a large following of younger listeners.

As close to appointment-TV as it’s possible to get in the Netflix age … Decoy, Steves, Grindah and Beats in People Just Do Nothing.
Google Images

The choice of content within this programme appeals directly to the target audience because it includes characters that are relatable because they are the stereotypical chav that everyone knows. All of the characters use colloquial language giving the audience something to relate to since they will use that language in their everyday lives and if they don’t it gives an inside look into another life, perhaps for escapism. 

Due to BBC Three being only available "on digital platforms" (BBC, 2013), this narrows down the audience to a niche of young people since watching online has become "increasingly popular" (Sweney, 2017) as found by an Ofcom report. Therefore due to the programme being online only it appeals to the audience because of the ease of access and similar tone of the show to other shows, such as 'The Office', which can be found on the online streaming service, 'Netflix'.

'People Just Do Nothing' is filmed in a mockumentary style and "is structured like the British version of "The Office" (Ali, 2017). This style of programme gives the viewer the impression of an authentic view of the pirate radio station through the style of a documentary.

The comedy aspect of the show is mainly brought through the characters. The characters have blatant stupidity written on their faces and show this through their actions. For example, in the first episode of series 3, the lads go to the studio and Steves spins on a chair and then falls on the floor. Perfect slapstick comedy. This is followed by a serious getting up off the floor by Steves and carrying on with the studio work. Since all of the characters are based on the stereotypical chav, they have their similarities with Vicky Pollard from 'Little Britain' because Vicky is the "typical chav roaming the streets of the UK" (Babbage, 2015). The boys in 'People Just Do Nothing' wear similar clothing and have the street presence that Vicky has throughout 'Little Britain'.


References

Newall, S. (2016). How a resolutely British show about pirate DJs has garnered international attention. Retrieved 4 October, 2017, from, http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/people-just-do-nothing-series-three-bbc-3-ash-atalla-series-2-a7195231.html 

 BBC. (2013). BBC Three. Retrieved 4 October, 2017, from, http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/regulatory_framework/service_licences/tv/2013/bbc_three.pdf[Accessed 4 Oct. 2017].

 Sweney, M. (2017). Ofcom: young people watch a third less TV on sets as they move online. Retrieved 4 October, 2017, from,  https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/jul/07/ofcom-young-people-watch-a-third-less-broadcast-tv-as-they-move-online 

 Ali, L. (2017). Music-focused British series 'People Just Do Nothing' celebrates the 'idiots everywhere'. Retrieved 4 October, 2017, from, http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-people-just-do-nothing-netflix-bbc-20170526-story.html 

 Babbage, R. (2015). Matt Lucas explains where Vicky Pollard came from. Retrieved 4 October, 2017, from, http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/news/a772910/matt-lucas-explains-where-vicky-pollard-came-from/ 
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

The Archers

The Archers is BBC Radio 4's "longest running drama" (Independent, 2011) and has been providing entertainment of real stories for over 67 years. It fits the radio 4 remit by providing a "wide range of other speech output including drama" (BBC Trust, 2016) but why has it been running for so long and what makes this drama engaging for its listeners? The episode I listened to was from back in 2013 when Bridge Farm's dairy herd was sold. This programme was grounded in factual research to ensure the programme sounded realistic for the viewers. The writer for The Archers visited a farm's cattle sale because there is "no way a writer could conjure scenes like this out of the imagination" (Solazzo, 2013). This quote shows that in every detail of the programme, in-depth research has been done to immerse the audience in as much realism as possible. The Archers covers a wide range of topics from "domestic violence and dementia to robotic cow mil...
Read more

Fighting Talk

BBC Radio Five Live - Fighting Talk Every Saturday, for one hour at 11am, BBC Radio 5 Live broadcast a topical sports show hosted by Colin Murray and “features sports journalists and SJA members such as Will Buckley, Martin Kelner and John Rawling among its panelists ” (sportsjournalists.co.uk, 2011). The BBC describes the podcast as a “sparky sports debate (bbc.co.uk, 2003) with “key sporting questions of the day” (bbc.co.uk, 2003) I listened to ‘Fighting Talk’ on BBC iPlayer from Saturday 30 th September 2017. The topics talked about on the show are suitable for a mainly male target audience due to football and other sports talked about on the show being stereotypically male sports because “ men continue to dominate most sports ” (Rose, 2017). At the start of the programme, the presenter and guests talk about the death of Hugh Hefner. This appeals to the male audience because “Hugh Hefner created the men's adult entertainment magazine 'Playboy,'” (biogr...
Read more

Taboo

Taboo is a “historical drama” (Hughes, 2017) that follows a man who “comes home to bury his father, revive an incestuous bond with sister Zilpha and claim his inheritance” (Duguid, 2017). Originally broadcast “at 9:15pm on BBC One” (Littlejohn, 2017) in January and repeated in March on BBC 2. This programme is suitable for this timeslot because it contains strong language, “harrowing moments” (Hughes, 2017) and subject matter such as “incest and exorcisms” (Hughes, 2017) that are not be suitable for younger viewers if broadcast at an earlier time due to Ofcom’s rules to “protect viewers from offensive and harmful content” (Ofcom, 2013). This drama is typical for BBC Two because it is required to give “an edgy, angled perspective on the world” (BBC, n.d.) with “complex and demanding tales” (BBC, n.d.) which Taboo does by providing the audience “grime and torment” (Hughes, 2017) through the storylines of each episode where the characters need to overcome obstacles to accomplish ...
Read more