Kewl! (League of Gentlemen, The)

Member Name: Jayne

Product:	League of Gentlemen, The
Date:	01/09/00 (228 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The funniest show on TV, with a bit of drama also!

Disadvantages: Not for the faint hearted or queasy!

Welcome to Royston Vasey, home of transsexual cab drivers, toad-obsessed families, abusive job centre officers and wife stealing circus freaks. The signpost states "You'll Never Leave!" and you wont want to either, because "The League of Gentlemen" is the funniest, freakiest and most original comedy programme that is on our TV screens at the moment. It's easy to see why the League of Gentlemen have scooped so many awards, as this is comedy at its best. Just in case you didn’t know, the League of Gentlemen are Jeremy Dyson, Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith. It’s the latter three that play the 60 something characters featured in the show.

After a successful radio series named "On The Town", the weird and wonderful town of Spent became Royston Vasey when transferred onto television. Many of the characters from the radio series such as the toad obsessed Denton’s and bullying restart officer Pauline Campbell-Jones made it into the television series, but there were also many new characters that had not been included in the radio series. Possibly not for the faint hearted, you'll find yourself laughing at things which you would never have thought to be humorous until "LOG" made its debut. Every inhabitant of Royston Vasey has something side-splittingly hilarious to offer. Each character also has their own mini-storyline that runs through the series, but there are many one-off characters that appear in both series.

To start with there are local shop owners Tubbs and Edward who despise anything and anyone who isn’t local. It’s a pity then that the only people who visit their shop happen to be non-local, who soon find that once they’ve entered the shop there is no going back…In the first series Tubbs and Edward’s main storyline follows their upset with the new road that is being planned to connect Royston Vasey with the rest of the outside w
orld. Naturally the thought of many “strangers” roaming the town doesn’t go down to well with the pair. Next we have my personal fave regular character Pauline, who is the local restart officer, yet she is hardly encouraging or pleasant in her manner. Instead she patronises everyone on the restart course (who she fondly nicknames “dole scum”) including Mickey who has the brain capacity of a pea and a tragic mullet and Ross, who is out to get his revenge on the bullying Pauline. The best scenes are when Pauline sets the task of trying to sell the “Big Issue” (“It’s a bit like Bunty except written by tramps”) and when she tries to demonstrate the best technique of how to conduct yourself when in an interview, only to be humiliated by Ross.

Another regular set of characters is the house-proud Denton family, who have so many rules about their house to follow that it begins to be very frustrating for the nephew Benjamin to follow. Then there’s Uncle Harvey’s scary obsession on toads and urine drinking. But wait – there’s more weird stuff to come. Next we have Geoff, Mike and Brian who work at the plastics factory nearby. They’re meant to be the best of friends yet Geoff cant stand either of them, and tends to have the odd psychotic gun-wielding breakout, for example when he is desperate for Brian to finish a joke he is telling to Mike. Providing the local transport is Barbara, a transsexual taxi driver who delights in telling her fellow passengers the details of her forthcoming sex-change operation. Another regular character is Mr. Chinnery the vet, who always seems to draw the short straw when it comes to curing any of his patients. My favourite moment being the tortoise who comes to a very sticky end, shall we say. Onto one of Royston Vasey’s most pathetic inhabitants now, the poor old downtrodden Les McQueen who cant get over the demise of his band Crème Brulee, w
ho nearly signed to Pickwick Records and had a hit with “Voodoo Lady”. Other characters included in the first and second series’ are scary newsagent Pop, abusive and pro-slave trade vicar Bernice and Hilary Briss the butcher, who is sells the very peculiar “special stuff” to selected customers, only we aren’t told what is exactly the main ingredient…

The first series also included the brilliant Legz Akimbo Theatre Company, fronted by the patronising Ollie Plimsolls. LATC focus their plays on issues to perform to schoolchildren, in this case “Everybody Out” a play about homosexuality aimed at 7-11 year olds. Unfortunately for Ollie however, his wife has just left him for a woman or “a female Geoff Capes” as he puts it. The Legz Akimbo scenes were my particular favourites of the first series and ones that I am still finding funny even now. The second series of “The League of Gentlemen” picked up where most of the 1st series’ characters left off, as well as bring in some new characters. I think the one that stands out for most viewers is Papa Lazarou, whose Pandemonium Carnival rolled into town in the first episode only of the 2nd series. Sporting minstrel make-up, Papa Lazarou terrorised local housewives by stealing them as his wives and er, trying to sell them pegs. The line “Hello Dave?” is possibly the funniest thing in the 2nd series, however bizarre it may be. However there are other great characters that were also introduced in the 2nd series, for example Herr Lipp, an incredibly camp German who runs the exchange program between the students of Duisberg and Royston Vasey, and falls in love at first sight with teenager Justin, whose family he is staying with. Another character worth a mention is wannabe actress Pam Doove, who proves to have rather an original style when it comes to auditioning for orange juice adverts. All the characters from the first series
also appear in the second, as well as another appearance from Legz Akimbo. Also appearing in the second series is Roy Chubby Brown (whose real name is of course Royston Vasey) as Mayor Vaughn who unsurprisingly cannot manage a sentence without swearing. The main storyline in the 2nd series is the mysterious nose-bleed epidemic which sends the death rate in Royston Vasey sky high.

There are many many reasons to love “The League of Gentlemen”, which hopefully you’ll have noticed in the descriptions of the characters. Recently for example the show proved it's popularity when Tubbs was voted 16th in Channel Four's Top 100 TV Characters of all time. However the programme is also the most hilarious thing to hit our screens in recent years, and is the only comedy show I know of the kind that can combine so many different genres in one show. It’s also a show that I promise you will be quoting from non-stop, and if this opinion wasn’t already long enough I’d include a few of my favourites. There was also a Christmas special on that was on recently, that featured short stories following the characters of arguing couple Stella and Charlie (who I am now furious with myself for not mentioning earlier!), Herr Lipp and Mr Chinnery. The book that is available is also hilarious and includes loads of cool stuff to keep you amused for hours, e.g. Pauline's advice on job interviews, Legz Akimbo's play on Northern life and Mr Chinnery's poignant letter to his wife (if you could call her that). The DVD is also worth getting as it contains a commentary from the gents which is very funny and informative as it points a lot of stuff out that I’d never actually noticed before. It also contains a few deleted scenes, most of which eventually transferred to the 2nd series however. And if you haven't seen them on tour yet, then you'd be advised to do so, as the final showings of their most recent tour is being shown
around the country.

So close the curtains and turn all the lights out, although all you'll need to visit the crazy world of the League of Gentlemen is a sense of humour. Will we ever find out just what IS the secret ingredient in butcher Hilary Briss's special stuff? Will Papa Lazarou's pandemonium circus ever roll back into Royston Vasey? And will Tubbs get a new dress? "The League of Gentlemen" contains more cliffhangers than your average episode of "Sunset Beach", and enough twists and mysteries to keep your mind reeling for hours. But relax; it's just a show.
But if a strange man with minstrel make-up appears at your door trying to sell you some pegs, leg it.

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