The League Of Gentlemen
From left to right: Tubbs Steve Pemberton and Edward Reece Shearsmith.
Genre	Sketch comedy/situation comedy
Running time	30 mins
Creator(s)	Jeremy Dyson Mark Gatiss Steve Pemberton Reece Shearsmith
Starring	Mark Gatiss Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith
Country of origin	UK
Original network/channel	BBC
Original run	January 11, 1999 – October 31, 2002
No. of episodes	19
IMDb profile

The League of Gentlemen is a troupe of English comedy performers, and the name of their stage, radio, and latterly television series. The show, which is a cross between a situation comedy and sketch show, details the bizarre goings-on in a fictional northern English village, which in the radio series was called Spent, and on television Royston Vasey (the real name of comedian Roy 'Chubby' Brown.) Image File history File links TheLeagueOfGentlemen-DVDSeries1. ... Steve Pemberton (b. ... Reece Shearsmith (born 27 August 1969 in Hull) is a British comedy performer and writer. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... A sitcom is a genre of comedy performance originally devised for radio but today typically found on television. ... Jeremy Dyson Jeremy Dyson is one of the UK’s most successful screenwriters and, with Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, makes up The League of Gentlemen. ... Mark Gatiss Mark Gatiss (born October 17, 1966 in Sedgefield, County Durham, England) is an English actor and writer. ... Steve Pemberton (b. ... Reece Shearsmith (born 27 August 1969 in Hull) is a British comedy performer and writer. ... Mark Gatiss Mark Gatiss (born October 17, 1966 in Sedgefield, County Durham, England) is an English actor and writer. ... Steve Pemberton (b. ... Reece Shearsmith (born 27 August 1969 in Hull) is a British comedy performer and writer. ... The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world. ... January 11 is the 11th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... October 31 is the 304th day of the year (305th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 61 days remaining. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location (dark green) within the United Kingdom (light green), with the Republic of Ireland (blue) to its west Languages English Capital London Largest city London Area – Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population – Total (mid... Comedy is the use of humor in the form of theater, where it simply referred to a play with a happy ending, in contrast to a tragedy. ... A sitcom is a genre of comedy performance originally devised for radio but today typically found on television. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location (dark green) within the United Kingdom (light green), with the Republic of Ireland (blue) to its west Languages English Capital London Largest city London Area – Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population – Total (mid... A village is a human residential settlement commonly found in rural areas. ... Roy Chubby Brown Promotional Material Roy Chubby Brown (real name: Royston Vasey, born February 5, 1945 Grangetown, Middlesbrough) is an English comedian known for the adult nature of his comedy, his foul mouthed approach and his outrageous costumes. ...

The stage show began in late 1994, and soon the team adopted their name from the Jack Hawkins movie, The League of Gentlemen and took the Perrier award for comedy at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1997. The same year the radio series On the Town with The League of Gentlemen, debuted on BBC Radio 4, and won a Sony Award for the first series. In 1999 the show transferred to television and quickly acquired a cult following. There have been one six-episode series on radio and three on television, the first being in 1999, the second in 2000 and the third in 2002. A Christmas Special was also shown in December 2000, soon after the airing of the second series. Along with The Fast Show, the series is credited with the revival of the sketch show format in BBC Comedy and its influence can be seen on the later series Little Britain. 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated like the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal. // Events January Bill Clinton January 1 : North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) goes into effect. ... John Edward Jack Hawkins (September 14, 1910 - July 18, 1973) was a British film actor of the 1950s and 1960s. ... The League Of Gentlemen was a 1959 British crime film, directed by Basil Dearden and starring Jack Hawkins and Nigel Patrick with Terence Alexander, Richard Attenborough, Norman Bird, Bryan Forbes, Roger Livesey and Kieron Moore. ... The Perrier Comedy Award is a prestigious award for comedy, awarded to the best comedy show at the Edinburgh Fringe sponsored by the Perrier brand of bottled water. ... A street performer on the Royal Mile (2004). ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station which broadcasts a wide variety of chiefly spoken-word programmes including news, drama, comedy, science and history. ... The Sony Radio Academy Awards (the Sonys), started in 1983, are some of the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... This article is about the year 2000. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... This article is about the year 2000. ... The Fast Show was a BBC comedy sketch show programme which ran for four series from 1994 to 2000, starring Paul Whitehouse, Charlie Higson, Simon Day, Mark Williams, John Thomson, Arabella Weir and Caroline Aherne (1994-1997). ... Little Britain is a character-based BBC radio and television sketch show written by and starring Matt Lucas and David Walliams. ...

Filming takes place mainly on location in the north Derbyshire town of Hadfield and consequently has no live audience. A laugh track was added to Series 1 and 2, but this was dropped from the Christmas Special and Series 3 when shown in the UK. The group also took the show to Drury Lane in 2001, comprised of old and new material. In early 2005, a special one-off sketch was broadcast on the BBC for Comic Aid, a charity benefit for the tsunami disaster. In it, two of the most popular characters, Tubbs and Papa Lazarou, kidnapped Miranda Richardson. A feature-length film, The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse, was released on 3 June 2005. The programme is made in 16:9 widescreen, which means that some of the visual gags might be hard to spot in letterboxed 4:3 format. Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, and boasts some of Englands most attractive scenery. ... The war memorial and Station Road in Hadfield Hadfield is a small town in High Peak, Derbyshire, England. ... A laugh track, laughter track or canned laughter is a separate soundtrack with the artificial sound of audience laughter, made to be inserted into TV comedy shows and sitcoms, mostly in the United States. ... The tsunami that struck Malé in the Maldives on December 26, 2004. ... Papa Lazarou Papa Lazarou is a fictional character in the BBC TV comedy programme The League of Gentlemen. ... Miranda Richardson as Queenie in Blackadder II (1986) Miranda Richardson (born 3 March 1958, in Southport, Merseyside) is an English actress, noted for her distinctive ability to deeply delve into the minds of the characters she plays. ... The League of Gentlemens Apocalypse is a film spin-off from the popular British television comedy series The League of Gentlemen. ... June 3 is the 154th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (155th in leap years), with 211 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The inner box (green) is the format used in pre-1952 movies and pre-HDTV television. ... A 2. ...

The BBC has expressed interest in a fourth series, but the League are unsure (i.e. it is unclear as to whether the show would continue in the style of Series 3 or return to the sketch format of the first two series). They have said that they would wait to see what critical reaction the film and their second tour will receive before progressing. If it does return, it is highly unlikely that it will still be set in Royston Vasey.

The three actors in the League (Gatiss, Pemberton and Shearsmith) toured the UK with their second live show "The League of Gentlemen Are Behind You", a pantomime-themed show which ran from October to mid-December 2005.

The League of Gentleman provided voices for the Vogons in the film The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Some of the characters can be clearly heard in the background of many scenes. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is a science-fiction comedy film based on the book of the same name by Douglas Adams. ...

According to Radio Times, in an article relating to the League of Gentlemen, it says that there was little chance of another series. However, on the unofficial site, it is commented by Reece on the London Theatre guide that there will be another series but it won't be in Royston Vasey, as the group believes that the village has run it's comedy course.

Overview

The League of Gentlemen is a sketch show, but over the run of a series the sketches involving a certain set of characters form an overall story. In addition, because all the action and nearly all the characters live in the same place, there is often overlap, with the events and characters of one story playing a part in another, much like a soap. There is usually a main plot to which the others are often tenuously connected, some simply using the main plot conveniently in brief dialogue or a background scene.

In the radio series, the plot was that of outsider Benjamin Denton visiting his aunt and uncle in Spent in order to be interviewed for a job at the local power plant. Not surprisingly, he missed the interview and is forced to stay longer than expected.

In Series 1, the main plot is that of a new road being built straight through Royston Vasey, and the possibility of numerous strangers intruding upon the town. The road development eventually ends when Tubbs and Edward discover the constructions manager to be their long lost son, David, and convince him to end the building, convincing him to live "locally". Series 2 saw a deadly epidemic of nosebleeds grip the town's inhabitants, killing several in the process. This plot is resolved after some confusion over the cause of the nosebleeds, involving Hilary Briss's "special stuff", Benjamin Denton's escape from his relatives, and the murders in the Local Shop.

There was also a Christmas Special after Series 2, which took a slightly different format of three self-contained stories, with three of the characters seeking the help of the vicar, Bernice, on Christmas Eve. Series 3 was different again focusing on a different character each week but with the overlaps creating a more complex layering of the plot, more akin to a one-off episode of a situation comedy (albeit one where all the episodes join up at the end) than a traditional sketch show. The end of each episode features a motor accident, where a white van crashes into a garden wall. Some residents escape unharmed, whilst others are not so lucky. A red plastic bag is seen in every episode to suggest that all the stories take place at the same time. All the characters' endings are resolved at the end of the final episode. In the broadest sense, a vicar (from the Latin vicarius) is anyone acting as a substitute or agent for a superior (compare vicarious). In this sense, the title is comparable to lieutenant. ... The Christmas Eve (1904-05), watercolor painting by the Swedish painter Carl Larsson (1853-1919) Christmas Eve, December 24, the day before Christmas Day, is treated to a greater or a lesser extent in most Christian societies as part of the Christmas festivities. ...

The majority of the inhabitants of the village — male and female — are played by Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton, and Mark Gatiss, and the script was written by the trio with Jeremy Dyson, though Dyson, who is not an actor like the others, does appear in cameo parts throughout the series. Because there are usually only three actors onscreen at any one time, the different characters mostly play out their own stories in several serialised sketches, rarely crossing into each other's storylines and only having rare occasions where the actors "meet themselves". Exceptions include Papa Lazarou facing the Reverend Bernice in the Christmas Special (both Reece Shearsmith), Alvin Steele buying from Iris at a supermarket checkout in Series 2 (both Mark Gatiss), and Herr Lipp meeting his creator, Steve Pemberton in The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse (both, obviously, Steve Pemberton). Reece Shearsmith (born 27 August 1969 in Hull) is a British comedy performer and writer. ... Steve Pemberton (b. ... Mark Gatiss Mark Gatiss (born October 17, 1966 in Sedgefield, County Durham, England) is an English actor and writer. ... Jeremy Dyson Jeremy Dyson is one of the UK’s most successful screenwriters and, with Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, makes up The League of Gentlemen. ... The League of Gentlemens Apocalypse is a film spin-off from the popular British television comedy series The League of Gentlemen. ...

It was directed by Steve Bendelack. The theme tune was composed by The Divine Comedy's Joby Talbot. The series has also garnered considerable critical acclaim, acquiring a BAFTA award, a Royal Television Society award and the Golden Rose of Montreux. In 2003, its creators were listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy. In 2004 The Radio Times listed Papa Lazarou as the 8th funniest comedy sketch of all time (despite the fact that Papa Lazarou is a character rather than a sketch). Originally an assistant to Peter Fluck and Roger Law on satirical TV puppet show Spitting Image, Steve Bendelack went on to direct the show in later years. ... Neil Hannon in a promotional photo for The Divine Comedys 2004 album, Absent Friends. ... Born in 1971 in Wimbledon, London, Joby Talbot initially studied composition at Royal Holloway and Bedford New College. ... The British Academy Television Awards, also known as the BAFTAs or, to differentiate them from the BAFTA Film Awards, the BAFTA Television Awards, are the most prestigious awards given in the British television industry, analogous to the Emmy Awards in the United States. ... The Royal Television Society is a British-based society for the discussion, analysis and preservation of television in all its forms, past, present and future. ... The Rose dOr (or Golden Rose) is a highly prestigious television award, given annually since 1961 at the Festival Rose dOr in spring each year. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Current Radio Times logo Radio Times is the BBCs weekly television and radio programme listings magazine. ... Papa Lazarou Papa Lazarou is a fictional character in the BBC TV comedy programme The League of Gentlemen. ... Papa Lazarou Papa Lazarou is a fictional character in the BBC TV comedy programme The League of Gentlemen. ...

The show has a lot of dark humour, with much of the scenes inspired by horror films (the policeman visiting Tubbs and Edward is straight out of The Wicker Man (1973)), documentaries (Dr Carlton came from a programme called "Change of Sex" which featured a "monstrously unsympathetic" doctor) and personal experience (Legz Akimbo came from the writers' experiences in amateur theatre and Pauline Campbell-Jones came from Reece Shearsmith's own Restart officer). Even the village sign is somewhat ominous, reading, in a similar style to many hundreds of such signs throughout the UK, "Welcome to Royston Vasey. You'll never leave." In real life, Royston Vasey is the given name of comedian Roy Chubby Brown; Brown makes several cameo appearances as the town's (characteristically) foulmouthed mayor. The "You'll never leave" comes from a faux-pas (albeit unintentional) from Gloucester Council, who wanted a change of image for the area after the West murders there, and they came up with "Come to Gloucester, You'll never leave." The Wicker Man is a cult 1973 British film containing thriller, horror and musical elements, directed by Robin Hardy, written by Anthony Shaffer. ... The New Deal is the name of a welfare-to-work scheme introduced in the United Kingdom by the year-old Labour government in 1998. ... Roy Chubby Brown Promotional Material Roy Chubby Brown (real name: Royston Vasey, born February 5, 1945 Grangetown, Middlesbrough) is an English comedian known for the adult nature of his comedy, his foul mouthed approach and his outrageous costumes. ... Frederick Walter Stephen West (September 29, 1941 – January 1, 1995) was an English construction worker and serial killer who, together with his wife Rosemary West, is believed to have murdered at least twelve young women, many at the couples home in Gloucester, England. ...

The programme has particularly high production values, with numerous detailed sets and complex character makeup, and particular attention is lavished on lighting and cinematography. The series is filmed on high-definition video tape, and post-processed to give it a high-quality film grain effect. A number of outdoor scenes (particularly the varied outdoor shots of the village shop and the intricate opening pan over the village) rival a major motion picture in terms of cinematography.

Characters

Main article: List of Characters in The League of Gentleman

This article contains a list of the numerous characters featured in various media by the comedy troup known as The League of Gentlemen. ...

Reference

• A Local Book for Local People published by 4th Estate, ISBN 1-84115-346-X

External links

• The official League of Gentlemen site — www.ThisIsALocalShop.com
• Official BBC site
• A spoof website for The League of Gentlemen.
• Unofficial site
• Fan site
• Another fan site
• McLean, Gareth. Odd men out. The Guardian. Saturday February 10, 2001. Retrieved May 20, 2005.