The League Of Gentlemen – Series 1 Mark Gatiss 2000 DVD Top-quality

Critically acclaimed and rapidly breeding a cult following, the bizarre BBC television series The League of Gentlemen is to sitcoms like The Good Life or even Friends what David Lynch’s films are to Frank Capra movies. Instead of the usual one-family-in-suburbia or group-of-pals set-up, Gentlemen centres on the whole town of Royston Vasey. A Northern village of, to say the least, eccentric characters, the weird people of Royston Vasey (actually, the real name of lewd northern comic Roy Chubby Brown) look like they’ve been intermarrying for too long and are suffering from a particularly demented variety of xenophobia that drives them to extremes of tetchiness and psychosis. There are the local shopkeepers Edward and Tubbs, who go to murderous lengths to ensure their shop remains for local people only; the Denton family, toad-breeders obsessed with maintaining their household rituals at all costs; inept veterinary surgeon Dr Chinnery, who’s never yet saved a patient; Barbara, the local transsexual taxi driver (one of the show’s more well adjusted characters); Pauline the demonic Restart Officer at the local Job Centre; and Lance, the sadistic owner of Lance’s Joke Shop which sells poisonous sweets and the ever-popular finger in a matchbox (with a real finger), among many others. Most of the characters are performed by the three core members of the group, sporting a disturbing variety of prosthetic demi-masks and latex make-up, who started the concept off with a stage show and then transferred it to radio before taking it on TV, which may explain why The League of Gentlemen seems blithely oblivious of normal sitcom conventions and has a stately air of surrealism that feels like The Archers as written by playwright Eugene Ionesco. Brilliant stuff.
On the DVD: Join the cast and co-writer Jeremy Dyson as they indulge in some “Local gossip” on the audio commentary, happily reminiscing about making this first series and discussing the origins of the innumerable characters and sketches, as well as pointing out hidden jokes and movie references galore. Also on this excellently produced disc are entertaining character biographies (Pop’s favourite lunch from Greggs is “Chicken & Mushroom Pie”, the sinister Denton twins are happiest when “Courting the Lords of Misrule”), an archive of the show’s theatrical origins, and a treasure-trove of deleted scenes. But remember, if you’re not local you can’t get it in.