Are you local? You are if you know The League of Gentlemen, the award-winning team who burned the remote town of Royston Vasey into the psyche of a nation. In a tour de force that has been called "Monty Python meets Twin Peaks," three actors bring an entire community of hilariously inbred characters to life. Once you're hooked on The League of Gentlemen and Royston Vasey, you'll never leave. VOLUME 1
Welcome to Royston Vasey - Ben struggles to take in Auntie Val and Uncle Harvey's incomprehensible house rules, while Martin poses a threat to the precious things in Tubbs and Edward's Local Shop. At the local job center, Pauline is furious when someone lands an interview without her help. Taxi driver Babs makes middling progress through her sex change.
The Road to Royston Vasey - The new road is good new for everyone except Tubbs and Edward. Pauline coaches a workshop in selling The Big Issue, and we meet butcher Hilary Briss, video hounds Henry and Ally, and the formidable Reverend Bernice.
Nightmare in Royston Vasey - Tubbs sees a map and discovers the world beyond Royston Vasey. Pauline buckles under pressure in the interview techniques workshop, and a terrible discovery is made on the road building site.
VOLUME 2
The Beast of Royston Vasey - As the monstrous discovery drives workers to flee the road construction site, Mr. Chinnery is called in to investigate the find. Legz Akimbo, a theatre-in-education group, pays the school an eye-opening visit, and Ben is left alone with the twins.
Love Comes to Royston Vasey - Mike's getting married. On retrospect it may have been a mistake to let Geoff be best man. Les McQueen regales the band with reminiscences of his rock-n-roll days. The Dentons mourn the passing of Uncle Harvey's beloved toads, Sonny and Cher.
Escape From Royston Vasey - Tubbs and Edwards have an unexpected visit from their son, David. It's Geoff's birthday, but have Mike and Brian forgotten? Ben grows more desperate to leave his uncle's house, and it's Operation Day for Babs.
In some grim and isolated corner of northern England lurks the town of Royston Vasey, where the local cab driver is a hirsute preoperative transsexual, the local butcher sells his special stuff to select customers, and the local employment counselor thinks people are like pens: "If they don't work, you shake 'em. If they still don't work, you chuck 'em away!" But if you're not local, you should steer clear of the local shop, no matter how tempted you are by its precious things.
To call The League of Gentlemen a black comedy would be an understatement. Its bleak humor owes as much to Samuel Beckett as it does to Monty Python, so those who like their laughs served warm are in for a shock. The show is the most wickedly inventive comedy to come out of Britain since Eddie and Patsy staggered onto our screens in Absolutely Fabulous, and like that groundbreaking series it proudly ignores the boundaries of good taste. Part sketch comedy, part bizarre soap opera, the narrative jumps back and forth between more than a dozen major characters, all played by the three performers who cowrote the show. These characters range from the odd--a vet who accidentally kills all of his patients--to the thoroughly disturbing, like Edward and Tubbs, the inbred proprietors of the Local Shop, who are willing to go to any lengths to prevent the building of a new road through their beloved town.
As the series progresses many of the plot threads begin to twist together, revealing hints that some deeper and more sinister plot might be unfolding in Royston Vasey. The League of Gentlemen manages to be both hilarious and chilling, thanks to the terrific writing and performances that are as subtle as they are grotesque. You have never seen anything like The League of Gentlemen, but like butcher Hilary Briss's special customers, you're sure to be back for more. --Simon Leake
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