The League Of Gentlemen - Series 1-3 (Box Set) (DVD)

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Outstanding
Characters / Performances	Good
Special Effects	Standard
How does it compare to similar films?	Not applicable

Advantages:	Very Funny, Unique and All in One Box, Lots of Extras
Disadvantages:	None that I can think of

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Welcome to Royston Vasey and The League of Gentlemen, you'll never leave.
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The League of gentlemen are Jeremy Dyson, Steve Pemberton, Mark Gatiss and Reece Shearsmith, who after becoming friends when they all attended Bretton Hall Drama College, got together to do a comedy stage show, winning the Perrier award at the Edinburgh Festival, then going on to Radio scooping the Sony Silver Award and then a Talkie Award for best audio comedy. This was all before bringing their wonderfully dark humorous show to the small screen in early 1999, making three series, a Christmas special, live show and finally a movie on the silver screen in 2005.

The box set comprises of six discs, and comes in a book like case, which is covered in a sleeve. On the six discs there are all three series, Christmas special and lots of extras. Each series consists of six episodes.

The league of gentlemen is set in the small town of Royston Vasey, which just happens to be Roy "Chubby" Browns real name, and is filmed in the village of Hadfield in Derbyshire. Steve Pemberton, Mark Gatiss and Reece Shearsmith portray many different characters in the show, all who are very strange, some a lot stranger than others, but very funny. They play around 60 characters in total. Jeremy Dyson doesn't really appear in the show, opting to appear only in cameo roles. Most of the characters are residents of Royston Vasey.

Characters
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There are far too many characters for me to mention here, but I will tell you about some of my favourites.

Tubbs and Edward Tattsyrup, played by Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith respectively, co-own the local shop. These are the characters with the funny noses. They live as man and wife, but are actually brother and sister are probably two of the stranger characters. The only people who are allowed to use the shop and buy the 'precious things' are local people and anyone else better watch out. They are the main reason that you will never leave Royston Vasey. They have a son David, who moved to London, but comes back to build a road, but he himself will now never leave. Whenever anyone goes into the shop you are sure that there will be strange things happening.

Barbara Dixon, voiced my Steve Pemberton. Barbara is a Pre-op transsexual who runs the local taxi firm, 'Bab's Cabs.' You never see her face, but she is always wearing a dress and high heels, and is constantly telling passengers in her gruff voice about having the 'Op.' All that Barbara wants is to find a decent man.

Matthew Chinnery, played by Mark Gatiss, the local Vet. He is very sweet natured and has good manners, he only wants to do well. But he manages to kill every animal he comes into contact with by accident.

Hilary Briss, also played my Mark Gatiss, the local butcher. The question is what or who does he butcher? I think that he would scare me a bit if I went into his shop. Hilary serves up 'special stuff' to a select few which then goes on to give everyone nose bleeds.

Val and Harvey Denton, played by Mark Gatiss and Steve Pemberton respectively. Toad mad and obsessed by cleanliness. They also have loads of rules, including using different coloured towels for different parts of the body, and the door is locked at 8.15pm sharp, these can not be broken. Harvey also pines for a self lowering toilet seat. They have twin daughters Chloe and Radclyffe who have a knack of sneaking up on people and talking in unison (a homage the twins in the shining). When they have their nephew Benjamin to stay, all of the rules get broken, and the toads struggle to survive.

Pauline Campbell-Jones, played by Steve Pemberton, the local Job Centre Re-start officer, who is obsessed with pens, her friends, and doesn't want any of the 'Dole Scum' to get a job. But she gets fired for violent conduct and becomes 'dole scum' herself, having to attend 'her' re-start class.

Papa Lazarou, played by Reece Shearsmith and is the circus ringmaster. Papa Lazarou is a very strange character, who paints his face black, calls everyone 'Dave,' talks in his own language which is just rubbish, sells pegs and steals wives. As strange as he is though, he is grossed out by the goings on in Royston Vasey, when everyone starts to have nose bleeds he takes his circus and leaves.

The Series
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Series one - Disc One
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1. Welcome to Royston Vasey
2. The Road to Royston Vasey
3. Nightmare in Royston Vasey
4. The Beast of Royston Vasey
5. Love Comes to Royston Vasey
6. Escape From Royston Vasey

Series Two - Disc Two
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1. Destination: Royston Vasey
2. Lust For Royston Vasey
3. A Plague on Royston Vasey
4. Death In Royston Vasey
5. Anarchy in Royston Vasey
6. Royston Vasey and the Monster from Hell

Series 3 - Disc Four
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1. The Lesbian and the Monkey
2. The one Armed man in King
3. Turn again Jeff Tipps
4. The Medusa Touch
5. Beauty and the Beast (Or, Come into My Parlour)
6. How the Elephant Got Its Trunk

Both Series one and two follow the story from episode to episode, and are built up of all of the different characters, having a few scenes each. But when The Gents wrote series three, they did something that took me ages to get my head around. They decided that each episode would be dedicated to only a couple of characters each, but at the end of each show you have the same scene. Basically the whole series is one day in Royston Vasey with a big ending in episode six. I found this very hard to follow, and preferred the first two series, although it was good in its own right.

Christmas Special - Disc Six
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Also in this box set we have the Christmas Special, which was aired in December 2000. Here we have most of the main characters from the series, but in a gothic style. It consists of three stories based in Royston Vasey, and is inspired by the writings of MR James and Edgar Allan Poe. This is a one-off special that distils The Gents fondness for disturbing, twisted characterisation and chilling humour into a single hour.

Extras
=====

There are many extra features of this box set.

On Disc One to accompany series one, there is Character Biographies, Cast and Director Commentary, Photo Gallery, and over 20 minutes of unseen material.

Disc Three accompanies series two. The features of this are a Behind the scenes look at series two, Character Biographies, Cast Commentary, Photo Gallery, and over 20 minutes of unseen material.

Disc Five, Series Three's Special stuff, has a lot more to offer, maybe because when series three was being made, it would be going to DVD not video, so more extras can be included. On offer here is over two hours of bonus material, commentary, interview with the costume designer, outtakes and deleted scenes, photo gallery, isolated music cues, video diaries, the making of series three and character biographies.

On Disc Six there is Christmas Special Stocking Fillers. These include a documentary, Tales from behind the Crypt, character biographies, Interview with Composer Joby Talbot, Jackanory, The Curse of Karrit Poor, Photo Gallery, Outtakes, the Gents in Conversation with Paul Jackson, and commentary by The Gents.

Where to buy
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At the time of writing the cheapest place I found this box set was on dvd.co.uk, retailing at £28.99, possibly be able to get it cheaper on auction sites. If you bought these discs separately though you are looking at between £40 and £50 so in that respect the box set is a bargain.

Summary
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This DVD box set is a must for any true fan of The League of Gentlemen if you haven't already got the separate DVDs. It has hours and hours of hilarious comedy, and more extras that you can shake a stick at.

If you like your humour to be a bit different to the norm and a bit dark and surreal then you are sure to love the League of Gentlemen. It could be seen as a dig at remote villages where there is little to do, where there could still perhaps be people whose genes are just a bit too close together and strangers are looked upon with suspicion.

Director: Steve Bendelack
Certificate: 15
Approximate Running Time: 10 hours (not including extras)

Thanks for reading. Gayna x