First full series to go online before TV broadcast

The BBC will tomorrow launch its first British comedy series to premiere all its episodes on iPlayer before TV broadcast.

People Just Do Nothing – a spoof documentary about fictional pirate radio station Kurupt FM – will go online four months before its conventional transmission.

Aimed at a young audience, the four-part series has its roots in the internet. Its creators and performers – Steve Stamp, Allan Mustafa, Hugo Chegwin and Asim Chaudhry –  were discovered by the BBC when they posted five-minute shorts on YouTube.

They were commissioned to make a half-hour iPlayer pilot as part of the BBC Three Comedy Feeds scheme – and after it became the most shared programme in July 2012, the series was commissioned.

Executive producer Ash Atalla from Roughcut Television called the show 'a brand-new series launched in a brand-new way' adding: 'The premiere will allow people to binge watch what is one of my favourite ever shows.'

In March, BBC director-general Tony Hall announced that the iPlayer was to be reinvented with a batch of new comedy shows from Micky Flanagan, Frankie Boyle, Bob Mortimer, Reeve Shearsmith, Morgana Robertson, Matt Berry, Stewart Lee and Meera Syal.

BBC Three is set to become an online-only channel from autumn 2015, subject to BBC Trust approval.

Tomorrow's People Just Do Nothing launch follows the release of the full series of Australian comic Chris Lilley’s new sitcom Jonah From Tonga on iPlayer earlier this month – but the episodes were only online for 48 hours as a precursor to the show being aired on BBC Three.

Published: 12 May 2014