I had seen a few clips from the show over the years, and I had seen the stars in dark comedy sitcom show Psychoville and dark comedy anthology show Inside No. 9, but I had never seen the full show, it was only when it returned in 2017 that I was finally able to watch it all. Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reese Shearsmith, along with writer Jeremy Dyson, formed The League of Gentlemen comedy troupe in 1995, the show originally started on BBC Radio, and aired on television in 1999. Basically the show is set in the fictional Northern English village of Royston Vasey (apparently, the real name of comedian Roy Chubby Brown), and follows the lives of the bizarre characters. Edward and Tulip "Tubbs" Tattsyrup (Shearsmith and Pemberton) run the Local Shop, they have distinct pig noses, they challenge strangers that enter the shop, and humiliate or murder them, their catchphrases include "Are you local?", "This is a local shop, for local people; there's nothing for you here", "Hello, hello? What's going on? What's all this shouting? We'll have no trouble here!". Harvey Denton (Pemberton) and his wife Val (Gatiss) live in a 1970s-style house in an insanely ordered manner, their completely normal nephew Benjamin (Shearsmith) comes to live with them, he is bemused by their strict rules of cleanliness and use of amenities, to the point where he is trying to get away. Pauline Campbell-Jones (Pemberton) is a Restart officer working at the job centre leading mandatory (and exceedingly condescending) Restart courses for unemployed attendees, including well-meaning simpleton Mickey M. Michaels (Gatiss), she eventually loses her job after confrontations with Ross Gaines (Shearsmith), and goes to prison, is released and marries Mickey, and then develops dementia, going to a state where she believes she is still has regained her position at the job centre. Papa Lazarou (Shearsmith) is the blackfaced leader of the travelling Pandemonium Carnival, a circus and freakshow, he is often seen terrorising women and kidnapping them to make them his "wife", he only appears in one episode a series (and the Christmas Special), but became one of the most popular characters, with his gruff voice and circus ringleader costume, his imitable catchphrases include "Hello, Dave!" and "You're my wife now!". Geoffrey "Geoff" Tipps (Shearsmith), Mike Harris (Pemberton), and Brian Morgan (Gatiss) all work at the local plastics injection-moulding company, while Mike and Brian are calm, Geoff is the most distinctive of the trio, being tactless and distasteful, failing to be funny when he wants to be, getting into fits of rage, and then doing whatever he can to get by, legal or illegal. Mr. Matthew Chinnery (Gatiss) is the cheerful but accident-prone local veterinarian, most of the animals he treats end up dying, due to these many accidents he feels he may be losing his sanity, and his accidents may be curse, one which never seems to lift. Les McQueen (Gatiss) is former rhythm-guitar player for 1970s glam rock band Creme Brulée, he constantly bothers other aspiring musicians and others he meets, boring them with tales of a now outdated and unfashionable music era. Reverend Bernice Woodall (Shearsmith) does not believe in God or the teachings of the Bible and takes perverse pleasure in constantly berating and humiliating parishioners for their sins. Herr Wolf Lipp (Pemberton) is a gay German teacher and self-proclaimed "Queen of Duisburg", he is also a paedophile who likes young boys, he has not mastered the English language, so often mistakes phrases from others as double entendres, his catchphrase is "Alasclah". Hilary Briss (Gatiss) is the local butcher, he sells a secret "special stuff", mysterious and highly addictive foodstuff. Legz Akimbo is a travelling theatre company, Oliver Plimsoles (Shearsmith) is the leader, writing and directing all their work, Phil Proctor (Gatiss) is gay and getting many film and television roles, making Oliver and Dave Parkes (Pemberton) jealous, they travel around mostly performing shows for schools and halls with performances consisting of delivering "helpful" advice to their audiences. Barbara Dixon (Paul Hays-Marshall and Michael Gallagher, voiced by Pemberton) is a transsexual taxi driver, often picking up characters from the village, she is only seen in glimpses, with noticeable male attributes, including chest hair and a deep gravelly voice, she often discusses with her passengers all disgusting details of her transition. The plot of the first series involved a new road being built through the village, meaning more strangers visiting the town, this ends when the construction manager is taken in by his long-lost parents, Tubbs and Edward, to live "locally". The plot of the second series saw many residents experiencing a deadly nose bleed epidemic, killing many; and the Local Shop murders are discovered. The Christmas Special sees three characters seeking the advice of the Reverend on Christmas Eve, with their stories seen in flashback, Bernice hates Christmas because of a terrifying childhood experience, her mother was kidnapped, and the kidnapper, Papa Lazarou, returns to take her. The fourth series, which was produced as a celebration of the 20th anniversary for the BBC Radio series, catches up with the characters, Royston Vasey is threatened by boundary changes, Bernice has escaped and returned to become the Mayor, she launches a campaign to save the town. Tubbs and Edward have survived the fire that burned down the Local Shop, the Prime Minister eventually changes his mind about the village boundaries, while Tubbs and Edward go on the run after killing a councillor and a local journalist, and a photo booth causing people to disappear is revealed to be a trap by Papa Lazarou, bringing women down into his mine. Also starring Jeremy Dyson as Various Characters, Roy Chubby Brown as Mayor Larry Vaughan, Car Share's Sian Gibson as Tricia, twins Megan De Wolf and Rosy De Wolf as Chloe and Radclyffe Denton, David Arnold as Victorian Gentleman with Fox, Freddie Jones as Dr. Magnus Purblind, Liza Tarbuck as Donna, Doctor Who's Nicholas Briggs as Garden Centre Worker, Christopher Eccleston as Dougal Siepp, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, Andy Nyman as Carl, Coronation Street's Brooke Vincent as Casey Glass and David Morrissey as Gareth Chapman. The first and series remained as a sketch show style format, with running sitcom themes, the Christmas Special only had two or three of the regular characters and seemed almost like a separate thing, and the fourth series tried mildly well to recapture the spirit, the show is obviously inspired and paying homage to great horror movies, all in all it is both a scary and funny show, and spawned its own spin-off movie, an entertaining dark comedy series. Job Seekers - The Interview was number 23, the Circus Comes to Town was number 14, and Tubbs and Edward - Road Men was number 3 on The 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches, Tubbs was number 16 on The 100 Greatest TV Characters, Pauline was number 22 and Papa Lazarou was number 8 on The World's Greatest Comedy Characters, "You're my wife now!" was number 36 and "This is a local shop for local people" was number 10 on 50 Greatest Comedy Catchphrases, the Christmas Special was number 32 on The 100 Greatest Christmas Moments, and it was number 24 on the 100 Greatest Scary Moments, and the show was number 41 on Britain's Best Sitcom. Very good!
Review of The League of Gentlemen
