The League Of Gentlemen - The Entire First Series [VHS] [1999]

Never again will you want to borrow a pen; forever will you hold your butcher in the deepest suspicion; those seaside novelty snowstorms will acquire a "precious" status; you will view your minicab driver in a different light. In short, Royston Vasey will become a place you really wish you COULD visit for a holiday... even if it does mean you will never leave again!

"The League of Gentlemen" succeeds where so many comedy series have failed- it is brilliantly written, fantastically acted, the attention to detail is unrivalled, there are ongoing themes which are developed each episode (by virtue of the opening credits), and there is actually a plot and consistent storyline. What is most terrifying of all is that most of us will be able to identify a grain of people we already know in the bizarre characters who inhabit Royston Vasey.

Buy it - it is a must. Once you've watched it (plus the final episode of the second series), then order the "Local Book for Local People". If you like your comedy pitch black, surreal and intelligent, you will not be disappointed. Most importantly, somehow I cannot see this one dating over the years; it truly deserves the much over-used label of 'classic'.

The plotting at first seems sparse but slowly comes together: a collection of grotesque characters all live in the Northern town of Royston Vasey (noted in the Doomsday Book as "two huttes with a pigge outside") and separately have effects on each other's lives. Think Magnolia... For example, we are first introduced to Pauline the restart officer (who not only hates the unemployed, she won't let them get jobs) when transsexual cab driver Bab - of Bab's Cabs - drives past the job centre, taking new arrival Benjamin Denton to stay with his toad-loving relatives...and so you can see how everything is slowly linked up.

Admittedly, there are a few catchphrases, but they're generally not the jokes. It's the fans who turned Pauline's greeting of "Hokey cokey pig-in-a-pokey!" and Tubbs and Edward's obsession with "precious things" into a national institution, but while the League play up to this, they fill each scene with plenty of new jokes. The best bit of this whole programme is that the characters: whilst in every way surreal, are fimly centred in real life. It's just that the League take these things that we can all relate to, and work on them until they're hilariously unhinged, but still recognisable - an amazing talent that few modern comics have got.

So all in all, I would pretty much consider The League of Gentlemen to be perfect comedy: we are treated to the comic monologues we might expect in stand-up (where they first gained noteriety), sitcom plots worthy of Fawlty Towers, one-liners to die for, and brilliant comic timing and acting (look out for the Aqua Vita sketch, but not for the faint-hearted). First-rate performances from a first-rate script ensure that this video will become an all-time favourite.

The characters are full of well, character I suppose with the local people loving Tubbs and Edward offering ‘seventy, eighty alright a pound’ for strangers to leave and never come back to their shop and home, but that’s just where there problem lies as once you’ve arrived in Royston Vasey ‘you’ll never leave’. Other characters include a transgender taxi driver who goes by the name of Barbara and has a voice deeper than Barry White, Harvey and Val Denton who are obsessively clean and equally obsessed with toads, charity shop ladies that only take things with a ‘special mark’ on them and many, many more.

Inspiration has been drawn cleverly from a variety of sources including cult films such as ‘The Shining’, ‘The Wicker Man’, ‘Don’t Look Now’ and even Disney’s jungle book, that is just how well the League work with their ideas, drawing up whole lives for characters right down to their favourite canned fruit of peaches in syrup. The League have been likened to Monty Python and other British comedies and has now become a somewhat iconic cult programme in its own right.

The show is beautifully tainted by wickedly funny dark humour, everyone knows that they shouldn’t laugh at a man in a wheelchair having his wheels removed (whilst he’s still in it) but because it is executed in great comic timing you can’t help but laugh out loud at the ridiculous situation. Even the start of the episodes have you laughing as a new ‘lost’ poster is put up each episode ranging from ‘Lost – grandma’ to ‘have you seen my finger’ and even a whole primary school class. It is these touches that put the League in a league of their own, you’re sure to find something new going on in the background each time you watch it and another funny line to make you laugh.