The League of Gentlemen

My roommate's English girlfriend gave him a DVD of the League of Gentlemen. Being a huge fan of Monty Python (own the entire series on DVD), Black Adder (likewise), Fawlty Towers (likewise), and The Young Ones (likewise), I was greatly intrigued by the stories I had heard of this series. Then I watched it. Oh my goodness. When I first saw Monty Python, I thought it was bizarre. Then the Young Ones came along and upped the ante. But the denizens of Royston Vasey set the bar so high that I doubt it will ever be topped. Half the time you're watching LOG you're laughing because it's genuinely funny, the other half of the time you're laughing because you can't believe what you've just seen. This series is Stephen King meets the Twilight Zone meets Stanley Kubrick meets Monty Python. It's easy to be funny, and it's easy to be bizarre and sinister, but to combine them and be all of that at once is truly a feat of genius. So, providing you've got a taste for the dark and strange, settle down on the couch with a nice glass of "aqua vitae" and watch this series. Oh, and don't take your pet turtle to the vet.

This series premiered on the cable TV station "Comedy Central" in the United States. It was chopped to death, and shown out of sequence. This was sad for the audience it should have attracted, it didn't and fell by the wayside. Luckily, at the same time my cable company went digital and I got the BBC. Thank goodness because I got to see "The League of Gentlemen" in order, complete and uncut.

"The League of Gentlemen" troupe is right up there with England's "Monty Python's Flying Circus" and Canada's "The Kids in the Hall". But..a warning.

"The League of Gentlemen" though are one step beyond. It's not only about dressing in drag and lampooning the cultural ills, it goes deeper and much, much, darker. I can tell many of you now -- it will offend certain groups of people, it will enrage others. But remember, its only comedy..dark, dark comedy. If that is not your thing, don't watch. If you think you KNOW dark comedy, watch this -- if you get angry and upset, then you don't quite know DARK COMEDY.

These guys got it right, and right on the button. They are brilliant, they are excellent and I enjoyed each and every character creation. There's a COMPLETE story that is told here from episode one to the end. You cannot watch this one episode at a time, willy nilly, that is one of the charms of this series. Watch it in order. See how creative and stylish and deeply disturbed these guys are. No one and nothing is out of bounds. That, my dears, is "dark humor". Bravo!

The League of Gentlemen are Jeremy Dyson, Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith. The latter 3 act and write while Dyson writes. In 1999 the quartet unleashed their eponymous TV series on us.

Every town has "odd" people – the suicidal army reservist, the toad fancier or the butcher who seems to take his job too seriously. And then there is that couple who keep themselves to themselves. And turn out to be brother and sister!

Roston Vasey is the real name of blue comic Roy "Chubby" Brown (who appears as the mayor in series 2). It is a mystery why the League chose his name as the fictional town in this series. But in Royston Vasey, being odd is the norm. With most of these characters played by the 3 acting Leaguers.

Series 1 is essentially a series of sketches set in "Vasey". Most of the characters do not interact other than in opening sequences although several are transported in the taxi of local transvestite Barbara. A very hairy man who is waiting for "the operation" and regales her customers with details of what is to come. This series is mostly offbeat comedy with a few blacker moments thrown in.

While there is a tenuous story holding series 2 together it carries on in a similar vein. Some sketches abandon the humour to explore a darker side. And the BBC makeup department are kept busy providing facial disfigurements for a number of characters. "Vasey" really needs a good dentist.

Series 3 is more of a "comedy drama". Each episode dealing with an individual character and a theme running through the end of each episode.

At first I was disappointed with series 3 as I wanted more of the same. The "best" characters are killed off and series 3 concentrates on minor players. On reflection though, each story stands up in its own right. A brave move which works.

Sick humour? Fantastic humour with good stories? The L of G pushed comedy in a new direction.

British TV Comedy has a great tradition. We have the gentle sit-coms like Are You Being Served, The Good Life, Butterflies which seem to have gained a cult following in the US. Then we have the slightly more adventurous sit-coms like Porridge, Only Fools And Horses and One Foot In The Grave with their observations on real living that we can all associate with. We also have the sketch-type comedy such as Harry Enfield and The Fast Show which take characters we meet everyday and make them ten-times worse and funnier.

But every so often we British do what we do best and come up with something that simply removes all of the boundaries and is unique. The Goons, Monty Pythons Flying Circus, The Goodies, Not The Nine O'Clock News, The Young Ones....the list goes on. These programs often start off as small projects shoved onto BBC2 or Channel 4, but eventually they become part of our comedy heritage. However, its been a long time since we have seen something as unique and ground-breaking as this one - its simply the best and most original comedy series for over a decade.

If you are not British and your vision of British comedy is Are You Being Served and Benny Hill, prepare yourself for a shock because gentle slap-stick this is not. The League of Gentlemen is very, very dark - there's very little feel-good about this comedy - and it is extremely surreal, but it is also immensely funny. The series follows the exploits of the inhabitants of a small Northern village called Royston Vasey (the real name of Roy Chubby Brown, a particularly x-rated British comedian). The show gives Royston Vasey an almost mystical air, as if seperated from the rest of the real world, a place where anything can happen and the unexpected always does. The characters are cleverly worked so that despite their grotesqueness, you can still associate with them and in some cases sympathise with them. All of the main characters (even the women, in true Monty Python style) are played by three of the four writers (Gatiss, Pemberton and Shearsmith), and every character is an absolute gem. To tell you about the characters would spoil the fun of finding out for yourself. What I will say is don't expect any happy endings or moralistic enlightenment in this show, because there aren't any...but do expect shocks, things that will make you whince and some genuinely funny moments. Also concentrate through the opening credits as the camera takes you around the town, because there are some excellent visual gags in there.

This is a truly wonderful and original slice of British humour. It won't be to everyone's taste, but to those that appreciate this style of humour, you cannot get any better than this. I can see this being viewed as a classic in years to come - lets hope it awakens some new and innovative comedy writing in the near future... we've waited long enough.

'The League of Gentlemen' is a work of genius. Not only is it completely original, but it manages to combine horror with laughs, resulting to perhaps, a new breed of black comedy. Deterring from the reality-based storylines of the common modern comedy shows, the LoG goes on another direction, twisting the boundaries of the trite 'real' world, so as that it becomes a whole new freakishly morbid and surrealistic dimension. Don't get me wrong, it really isn't THAT twisted... or maybe it is... Anyway, its up for you to decide...

'The League of Gentlemen' is also strongly addictive. Yes, the tagline is correct... Welcome to Royston Vasey. You'll never leave!