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!

By the end of the '90's, British comedy had undergone a serious change, conventional sitcoms suddenly started to phase out in favour of more dark humour. Perhaps the darkest of the dark was 'The League Of Gentlemen'. It all took place in a fictional little town named Royston Vasey ( which is in fact the real name of controversial stand-up comedian Roy 'Chubby' Brown who appeared occasionally in the show as the town's foul mouthed mayor ). Royston Vasey is a strange place peopled by strange and grotesque people. A sign at the entrance of the town reads, ''Welcome To Royston Vasey, You'll Never Leave'', which is true if your first port of call is to the 'Local Shop', which is run by the grotesque Tubbs and Edward who don't take kindly to non-local people.Other inhabitants of the eerie town are toad-obsessed Harvey and Val Denton and their put-upon nephew Benjamin, has-been rhythm guitarist Les McQueen, foul mouthed restart officer Pauline, even more foul mouthed vicar Bernice Woodall, overwrought workmen Brian, Geoff and Mike, cannibalistic butcher Hilary Briss, cack-handed vet Dr. Chinnery ( whose careless handling of his patients is usually very gruesome ) among several but perhaps the strangest of them all ( yes, even stranger than Tubbs and Edward ) is Papa Lazarou, a raspy voiced circus master who kidnaps women whilst whispering to them: ''You're my wife now!''.In the first series, workers plan to build a new road through Royston Vasey, which meets in the face of opposition from Tubbs and Edward. In the second series, people of Royston Vasey are slowly dying from a nosebleed epidemic ( which was brought on by their consumption of 'special stuff', which is provided by the butcher Hilary Briss ). A Christmas special, done in the form of a horror movie, unfolded the traumatic back-stories of some of the characters. However, the third series was quite different from the rest, shot without a studio audience, it became more a comedy serial than a sitcom, with a situation involving a red carrier bag and a car crash bringing all of the characters into one story.It all sounds vile, distasteful and macabre, it was meant to be, but it was often amusing, if sometimes a bit too near the knuckle for my liking. The scripts were written by Reece Shearsmith ( who my sister used to have a massive crush on ), Mark Gattis, Steve Pemberton and Jeremy Dyson. All but Dyson were the main performers in the show. Dyson only appeared in minor or background roles.After series three, the show came to an end, though the cast took their creation on tour twice with 'The Leauge Of Gentlemen Live' ( 2001 ) and 'The League Of Gentlemen Are Behind You!' ( done in the form of panto and which toured in 2005 ). A feature film, 'The League Of Gentlemen - Apocalypse' was made in 2004 and saw the characters come to life and confront their creators to try and get them to write more episodes. It was fab.In 2017, the show was revived for three special episodes and contrary to all expectations it turned out to be better than it had a right to be, though Pemberton, Shearsmith and co have stated that that is where the story of 'The League Of Gentlemen' will end.

I like British humor, I believe it's one of the best in the world. I like almost every British sitcom (okay... maybe not Monthy Python, some of the jokes were great, but some of them I didn't understand.), but this League of Gentlemen is just something good to make you sick. This show was good in some way; it helped me lost some weight because watching this piece of garbage make me feel I'm not hungry anymore. This is really just disgusting, sick and not even funny TV show and I wonder who is actually laughing at this stuff. I watched it for about 10 minutes and turned it off. It was so disgusting, watching men dressed in the woman with yellow teeth and urinating on the car... I mean... what's so funny about that??? It makes me wanna puke. No humor, just disturbing images and cheap, toilet laughs... I don't know... if you like this stuff... you go ahead... watch it... but to be honest, people watching and enjoying this must have some emotional problems. Garbage.

A fantastic show and an unrealized classic; The League of Gentlemen remains as one of the greatest modern comedies of recent times.With a dark and bizarre style of humor that towers over the tired, formulaic approach of it's inferior, yet unfortunately far more acknowledged successor, Little Britain, The League of Gentlemen was truly something special during a rather quiet era in British comedy.Up until it's arrival on the scene, there had never really been anything like The League of Gentlemen before. On the surface, a seemingly simplistic sketch show, the show soon unfolds as a vivid, sinister but incredibly hilarious universe populated with all manner of brilliant comedic creations. What really sets the show apart from it's rivals, is it's approach to telling us it's story. Rather than serve us re-hashed sketches, barely distinguishable from the next, here we see each individual or group of characters go through their various journeys and story lines. No visit to them is the same, and each time they offer us up with a surprise.Gradually, over three series' and a Christmas special, the fictional town of Royston Vasey is heaving with a grotesque yet hilarious populace. And that's probably the main reason why the show is such a joy to watch (and also the reason why the show would easily merit more series') Unlike other current shows like The Catherine Tate Show or more importantly Little Britain, the League both know when a character has run it's course, and have the opportunity to deal with that. Several fan favorite's, who could have easily been kept on to entertain further, bowed out before the series came to a close, giving room for fellow characters to grow more, or allow for the introduction of newer residents of Royston Vasey to make their mark.Another thing that sets this show above others is that the writing team approach the script process with care and intelligence. As mentioned before, all four members of the League have a sound mind when it comes to judging the longevity of their creations, and when it's time to call it quits in respect to certain characters. This awareness has also meant The League of Gentlemen undergoes a bold evolution, not usually seen in a show of this nature. The narrative driven, and far darker third series is a brave step away from the more sketch based first two series' and this bold move by the League really pays off. With the third series, there's less of an urgency for them to please an audience, and like the Christmas special, they pursue individual stories with a clear narrative, unlike the more sketch-based previous series' that (succesfully) binded together various sets of sketches into a series' long story arc.The third series is both a refreshing change of pace of style, as well as a real treat for fans who've already seen the first two. Despite some polarized opinion on the third series, any real fan of the League will appreciate what the third series has to offer, as well as really enjoy the more character based episodes, that only delve deeper into fan favorite's, but pair up and inter-wine characters that might not have crossed paths previously.It might take a little trying to get into the change in style, but it's definitely worth it, and in my opinion, the third series is the best and also provides a firm conclusion to the series.The show's not without it's drawbacks, and very occasionally certain characters and set pieces appear somewhat out of place, but for the most part, the genius writing, dark nature of the show and the host of brilliant characters (that are often all too close to real life) make for a real treat and prove what comedy should be about and puts much of the more recent, catch phrase driven and often desperate attempts at comedy to shame