‘I became one of TV’s biggest stars thanks to mucking around with my friends’

Allan Mustafa is a certified TV comedy great. But his career didn’t start with drama school, a leg-up from a middle-class upbringing, or a teacher who nurtured his creative spirit. It began with friendship.

‘It feels like I’ve won the lottery,’ Allan says in a chat with , 10 years on from when mockumentary People Just Do Nothing first aired on BBC Three.

Alongside Hugo Chegwin, Asim Chaudhry, Steve Stamp and Danny Rankin, Allan plays wannabe roadman MC Grindah, who is set on making it big in the music world from Brentford with ‘lyrical blows to the jaw’ via their pirate radio station, Kurupt FM.

The Office influence is clear – Allan and Hugo binged on Ricky Gervais’ masterpiece at university – with its bleak storyline and dry, character-driven scenes. But Allan’s co-creation also has the tenderness of Daisy May Cooper’s This Country, which makes the hopeless wannabes lovable, as well as ridiculous.

It seems likely the friendship origin story of the show has something to do with this, as Allan recalls how he and Hugo would hang out at university making music, but would end up prank calling people and doing weird characters.

Hugo is the friendship grand-master in the story of People Just Do Nothing, as he invited Allan to Thailand to travel with his best schoolmate, Steve. What would grow into their material – and later their career – started with the simple aim of trying to make each other laugh.

‘I immediately connected with Steve,’ Allan remembers, in the same way he did with Hugo.

‘It was always just to make each other laugh. On reflection, I see it as a bit of a training ground. But at the time it was very pure, honest and fun.’

Steve instantly got it, and promptly started pretending to be on pills at full moon parties. Brilliant.

‘So we would go up to people on the beach at full moon parties pretending to be on pills, and be like, “Yesssss, bruv!” and they would be like, “Duuuude, ride the wave!”,’ Allan explains.

‘The joke was always on us. We were the weirdos. It was never mean, we were the idiots.’

Then somewhere during a 14-hour coach ride across Thailand, Steve said he thought they should do something with the laughs.

Allan was hesitant at first. ‘I’m working class, no one from my school did anything in the arts,’ he said.

But back in the UK, Allan, Hugo and Steve – with the help of the ultimate Kurupt FM hype man, and useless on-screen manager – Taskmaster star Asim Chaudhry and his camera, began recording skits.

A few years later they were picked up by the producers of The Office.

‘It’s the most amazing feeling in the world. Every single day I count my lucky stars. When I’m on set, I’m gassed. This is something we created, and suddenly there’s people filming it and hopefully watching it. I’m very proud of that.’

But while creating something from scratch with his friends has given Allan more confidence in life and boosted his self-esteem, fame can sometimes make him want to retreat inside a turtle shell.

‘Especially when you’re on the tube and it’s silent, and someone is like, “MATE!” then you start feeling a little bit shy,’ he chuckles, chatting with a constant hint of laughter in his voice, that’s quite frankly incredibly endearing.

While he’s an approachable guy, sometimes fans feel a little too comfortable around him – which makes Allan feel like he’s in a Truman Show-esque comedy set of his own.

This became clear at Glastonbury, where Kurupt FM performed for the second year running, this time in two sets across the weekend.

On stage, the friends are very much in their People Just Do Nothing characters, performing their own garage tracks with the energy of Beyoncé, but the stage presence of Partridge.

‘This is us getting to live our childhood dreams. We are very lucky,’ he says.

‘We get to have the dream we realised as we got older, to create, write and star in our own comedy TV show, and then still get to do the music side of things which was our first love.

‘But do it in a way that it doesn’t matter if you f**k up on stage because you’re playing idiots.’

Aside from attracting a crowd too big for the Glade stage on the Thursday night- and, importantly, seeing Noel Gallagher tripping over a tent wire – Allan had his most bizarre fan interaction yet at a Glastonbury urinal.

‘I was in the troth urinal – and in real life I wouldn’t want to stand right next to someone and piss, as I’d get stage fright – and I thought, “I hope I don’t get recognised right now, that would be long.”

‘This guy looks down at me pissing, looks up to my eye level and says, “Oh my god, MC Grindah! Mate can I get a photo?”‘

While Allan said that would be great once he was done pissing, the fan got his phone out and took a selfie of Allan in the act.

‘That’s when you think you’re in some kind of comedy set yourself,’ Allan chuckles, ‘It’s so degrading.’

But recognition – hopefully, next time not in the urinals – is bound to become a frequent event for Allan, as he features in more TV shows like the comedy Peacock, the second season of which is out now.

Departing from Mc Grindah for a major TV show was a big step for Allan, as he put on his Andy hat to play the personal trainer who is having an identity crisis.

Co-created by Steve and their friend Ben Murray, Allan explains: ‘It feels different enough that I didn’t get mixed up in MC Grindah.

‘The first season was only three episodes, and we were proud of that. But it felt like it was finding its legs, but season two feels like we are there.’

As for his other project: Allan is also a big foodie and travels around tasting the best cuisines the world has to offer for his social media account, Taste Cadets. (His favourite London restaurants are Black Axe Mangal, Nandine and Brat, in case you were wondering.)

The boy at school couldn’t have imagined this would be his life at 38.

‘I’ve always tried to cut corners,’ he laughed. ‘I wasn’t throwing chairs at teachers, but I wasn’t academic. I just wanted my life to be about rap music and smoking weed.’

But mostly, it seems Allan’s huge motivation in life is his friends – whether that’s making them laugh, or creating with them.

So aside from being the best MC in the world, Allan can relate to MC Grindah in one way.

He explains: ‘People Do Nothing is about friendship and wanting to have your friends together, and not wanting things to end.’