The League Of Gentlemen
 JEREMY DYSON
 MARK GATISS
 STEVE PEMBERTON
 REECE SHEARSMITH
 GUARDIAN ARTICLE(1)
 PICTURES
 LINKS
 CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL
 History of TLoG & TLog News
 EPISODE GUIDE
 Thanx Page
 Other T.V Appearances
 Guardian Article(2)
 Guardian Article(3)
 Independant Article
 Guardian Article(4)
 The Sun Article
 The Sun Article

IN A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN

 

By GIOVANNA IOZZI

A PAIR of inbred shopkeepers murder any customer who isn't "local."

Kindly vet Mr Chinnery accidentally kills every animal he's asked to examine.

Sadistic job restart officer Pauline makes sure her class can never get work, and a butcher sells "special" sausages which are probably made of human flesh.

 

Then there's gruff-voiced, hairy-chested transsexual cab driver Barbara who delights in telling passengers about her sex-change operation.

And these are just some of the inhabitants of Royston Vasey, the bizarre northern town that is the setting for TV's blackest COMEDY.

It may sound sick but the five million fans who watch BBC2's The League Of Gentlemen obviously don't think so.

They can't get enough of it and are now packing out theatres across Britain for the live version of the programme.

Oh, and if the name Royston Vasey sounds vaguely familiar, that's because it's the real name of blue comic Roy "Chubby" Brown. He's a big fan and even appeared in the show as the town's mayor - who died from a nosebleed.

    Other fans include Tom Jones, Paul McCartney, Michael Palin and Bjork.

The men behind the show - writer-performers Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith, Mark Gatiss and writer Jeremy Dyson, who doesn't appear with the trio - are telly's most talked-about comedy team.

Yet few fans would recognise the League in person - in the show they are disguised behind upturned false noses, rotten teeth and wigs.

To the uninitiated they look like four guys you would happily take home to meet your mum.

 

But these are the guys who make their living from jokes about incest, transsexuals and cannabilism.

The Sun spoke to the lads after a sell-out show at Blackpool's Opera House and asked the questions all their fans want answered: Where on earth do they get the inspiration for their characters, and what type of people are coming to see them?

Steve, 33, says: "Believe it or not, most are based on real people. Fans worry we're going to base our next character on them - but you can tell they really love the idea.

"It's hard to generalise about the types that our humour appeals to.

"If you look at the audiences you see old people, mums in their 50s, families, kids - they could be queueing to see Santa Claus."

    Among their best-loved creations are Tubbs and Edward, the incestuous brother and sister with pig-like snouts who run the "local" store and tend to kill their customers because they fear change.

Tubbs warns shoppers "not to touch the precious things of the shop", a catchphrase inspired by a real shopkeeper.

Steve, who plays her, explains: "We went on a day trip to Rottingdean near Brighton on our first tour back in September 1995.

"We went into a little shop selling snow storms and seaside junk and there was a little old woman there looking at us very suspiciously.

 

 

"She couldn't keep her eyes on all of us at once and you could tell she was frightened we would break or steal something. The idea just grew from there, as did the noses."

Reece, who plays Edward, says: "When your nose is up for five hours at a time it can really hurt - even go septic. You get a crease in it, I worry I'll end up with a snout. But fans love to dress up as Tubbs and Edward when they come to the show."

Then there is Papa Lazarou, a sinister circus ringmaster who looks like a demented Black-and White Minstrel, collects wives and greets everyone with "Hello Dave."

Reece, 31, explains: "Mr Papalazarou was the name of one of mine and Steve's landlords.

"But he would never speak to me. When I answered the phone he used to say 'Hello Steve,' and that became 'Hello Dave.' "

 

 

What about Mickey, the backward unemployed man who is constantly being tortured by the monstrous Pauline?

Mark, 34, who plays him says: "I grew up near a mental hospital, so I had plenty of time to model him."

Mark from Sedgefield, Co Durham, Steve, from Blackburn, and Reece, from Hull, met at drama school in Wakefield. At the same time, Mark met writer Jeremy Dyson, 34, who was at Leeds University.

They soon found they shared the same interests in horror films and comedians such as Victoria Wood and Dick Emery and writer Alan Bennett.

Jeremy, who doesn't perform, says: "We've always found we laugh and get scared by the same things."

In 1996 the group - named after an old black and white British film - took their show to the Edinburgh Festival. It went down so well they were signed by the BBC for a radio series which won a Sony Silver Award in 1997.

They won the Edinburgh Perrier Award the same year and their first TV series in 1999 was awarded the prestigious Golden Rose of Montreux.

    To cap it all they won a BAFTA for their second series in January 2000.

Jeremy adds: "We're still so excited we've come this far."

And others seem to be doing well out of their success.

The real butcher in Hadfield, Derbyshire, where the show is filmed is selling sausages he calls "special stuff" and is raking it in.

As Steve says: "The great thing is although the show is set in Royston Vasey, the characters and attitudes are universal - anywhere can be 'local.' "

But sometimes life is too weird even for the League.

Mark recalls: "I met a real transsexual couple when we were filming in Hadfield. A very small man and a tall hairy woman."

Reece adds: "And people think that we're strange."

The League of Gentlemen start a four-week run at London's Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, today.

 

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 The League Of Gentlemen  JEREMY DYSON  MARK GATISS  STEVE PEMBERTON  REECE SHEARSMITH  GUARDIAN ARTICLE(1)  PICTURES  LINKS  CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL   History of TLoG & TLog News  EPISODE GUIDE  Thanx Page  Other T.V Appearances  Guardian Article(2)  Guardian Article(3)  Independant Article  Guardian Article(4)  The Sun Article