The League of Gentlemen is a quartet of British comedy writer/performers, formed in 1995 by Jeremy Dyson, Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith. The television program for which they are best known, although officially labelled a sitcom, was initially more sketch-based, linked together by their common setting: the fictional village of Royston Vasey, set somewhere in the north of England. The first series aired on BBC Two in 1999, and follows the lives of dozens of the town's bizarre inhabitants, played by Gatiss, Pemberton and Shearsmith in a number of different guises and make-up.

Past and future
The League of Gentlemen is primarily a sitcom, albeit an unusual one. It consists of a series of sketches which come together to form an overall story. Since all the action takes place, and nearly all the characters live, in the same village, there is much overlap, and the events and characters of one story play a part in the lives of others, much as in a soap opera. There is usually a main plot to which the minor stories tend to be tenuously connected.

Series

Main article: List of The League of Gentlemen episodes Episode Guide

Main article: List of characters in The League of Gentlemen Characters
The majority of the inhabitants of the village — male and female — are played by Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton, and Mark Gatiss, and the script was written by these three, along with Jeremy Dyson. Dyson, not an actor like the others, appears only in cameo roles. As there are usually only three actors on screen at any one time, the different characters mostly play out their own stories in several serialised sketches, rarely crossing into each others' storylines. Only rarely do actors "meet themselves". Exceptions include Papa Lazarou facing the Reverend Bernice in the Christmas Special (both Reece Shearsmith), Alvin Steele buying food from Iris at a supermarket checkout in Series 2 (both Mark Gatiss). The idea is taken further in the The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse, when the characters meet the actors (especially when Herr Lipp meets his creator, Steve Pemberton).

Actors
The show has a great deal of dark humour, with many of the scenes inspired by horror films (the policeman who visits Tubbs and Edward in the first series is a reference to The Wicker Man), documentaries (Dr Carlton came from a programme called "Change of Sex" which featured a "monstrously unsympathetic" doctor) and personal experience (Legz Akimbo came from the writers' experiences in amateur theatre, while Pauline Campbell-Jones came from Reece Shearsmith's own Restart officer). Even the village sign is somewhat ominous, reading, in similar style to many hundreds of such signs throughout the UK, "Welcome to Royston Vasey. You'll never leave." In real life, Royston Vasey is the given name of comedian Roy 'Chubby' Brown, who makes several cameo appearances as the town's foulmouthed mayor.
It is notable that each series since the first has featured a progressively smaller proportion of jokes, focusing more on horror and drama. The third series in particular is notable for its absence of humour in many scenes. The League even comment on the DVD commentary that one scene involving Pauline and Ross was initially written without any jokes at all, so one was tacked on afterwards when they realised they had forgotten about it.
The programme has notably high production values, with numerous detailed sets and complex character makeup, with particular attention paid to lighting and cinematography. The series is filmed on high-definition video tape, and post-processed to give it a high-quality film grain effect. A number of outdoor scenes (particularly the varied outdoor shots of the village shop and the intricate opening pan over the village) rival major motion pictures in terms of cinematography.
The series and film were directed by Steve Bendelack and the theme tune composed by The Divine Comedy's Joby Talbot. For the third series, Talbot revamped the theme tune, giving it a funkier feel.

Atmosphere
The series has garnered considerable critical acclaim, as well as a BAFTA award, a Royal Television Society award and the Golden Rose of Montreux. In 2003, its creators were listed in The Observer as among the 50 funniest acts in British comedy. In 2004 The Radio Times listed Papa Lazarou as the 8th funniest comedy sketch of all time (despite the fact that Papa Lazarou is a character rather than a sketch).
Despite substantial critical acclaim, it has been branded with cult status and has never achieved, or certainly never maintained, broad popularity. Despite being far older, the program is sometimes referred to as 'The Thinking Man's Little Britain'.

Reaction

A Local Book for Local People (2000) London: 4th Estate, ISBN 1-84115-346-X
The League of Gentlemen: Scripts and That (2003) London: BBC Worldwide, ISBN 0-563-48775-5
The League of Gentlemen's Book of Precious Things (2007) London: Prion, ISBN 1-853-75621-0 Books

Other star guest appearances include Christopher Eccleston in the last episode of series 3 and Roy 'Chubby' Brown, playing the Mayor of Royston Vasey.
All three performing members of The League (Gatiss, Pemberton & Shearsmith) acted in different roles in the 1998 BBC television adaptation of Mark Taverner's satire In the Red.
There is at least one horror movie reference in every episode.
The troupe is friends with Edgar Wright, and cast members have constantly overlapped between their projects. League members appear in Spaced and Shaun of the Dead (and Gatiss appears uncredited in Wright's trailer for Grindhouse as admitted by Wright[1]). Conversely, Simon Pegg appeared in The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse.
While Joby Talbot wrote the score for the television series, the eccentric theme music to the radio series On the Town with the League of Gentlemen was Michael Nyman's piece An Eye for Optical Theory from the film The Draughtsman's Contract. Links to real life