BBC2: League of Gentlemen

In my humble opinion, The League of Gentlemen is a comedy masterpiece. Conceived and performed by Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton and Mark Gatiss, together with their writing partner Jeremy Dyson, it is set in the fictional town of Royston Vasey (a homage to the Gents' favourite comedian, Roy 'Chubby' Brown - Royston Vasey being his real name) and features the every day lives of some of its inhabitants. Essentially, the programme is a character sketch show, but unlike many of its counterparts (The Fast Show, Little Britain etc.) it has an ongoing story which runs through it, linking some of ... more

The League of Gentlemen captures the darker side to a generation. It is comedy at its most extreme, discouraging half of the televisual audience from tuning in regularly through its vulgarity and black comedy, and creating a cult-like troop of followers who will forever more be quoted the many Dick Emery style catchprases that sum up different types of mood/person/situation and thing. I read with interest in the National Newspapers that filming has began on the third series, following the exploits of the inhabitants of Royston Vasey. The League has had two successful series so far, and a ... more

Not since the Fast Show has a programme had so many catchphrases. The great thing about this show is that because it's not got the biggest viewing figures in the world, you can repeat "you're my wife now" to your hearts content, and no one has the foggiest. I first came across The League Of Gentleman the year they won the perrier award (1998) The year after Dylan Moran. And at first I was sceptical about a group winning, because few years before 2 austrailians took the award, and weren't very good. I'm bitter, I wanted Alan Davies or Jeff Green to win. So anyway, it took me a while to come ... more

It's very out there isn't it? The League of Gentlemen is one STRANGE little thing where all the major parts are played by just three individuals, who write the whole thing in conjunction with one other who's too ugly to be on camera - wait a minute look at these three - no, make that he's too handsome to be on camera. The charcaters and scenario are well off the wall - just look at the local shop - how many of those are you likely to see anywhere else? It takes a long time getting used to their universe and the characters are all so awful, but once you've taken the great leap into their ... more

Aah...The League of Gentlemen, one of my favourite television comedies. Pure comedy genius. Starring Reece Shearsmith, Mark Gatiss and Steve Pemberton and written by the three plus the camera-shy Jeremy Dyson. The quartet really kicked off by winning the Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Festival in 1997. They had a BBC Radio 4 series, 'On The Town With The League of Gentlemen' which won two awards. Then came the first television series, 'The League of Gentlemen', which was first shown on BBC2 in January 1999. The second (and most recent) series was shown in January/February 2000 on BBC2. The ... more