A local quiz for local people
Twenty years ago, a strange little sketch show called The League of Gentlemen debuted on BBC2. It was an adaptation of a cult radio show, written by and starring Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, and Reece Shearsmith (with the fourth writer, Jeremy Dyson, rarely appearing on-screen).
It broke the sketch show formula by, instead of jumping between unrelated skits, having it all take place in and around the fictional village of Royston Vasey – with Gatiss, Pemberton, and Shearsmith playing all the residents, both male or female. So no hokey, ‘here we are at the funfair this week’-style exposition, and instead, slow-burning story arcs and dense world-building.
The other thing that made The League of Gentlemen stand out though, was that it took as much influence from British horror, like Hammer Studios and The Wicker Man, as it did The Fast Show. It was a show that was not afraid to get dark, and weird, and genuinely disturbing, even if it was at the expense of the laughs. No more obvious was this than in the 2000 Christmas Special, that was basically a straight-up horror movie and barely a comedy.
The final episode of The League of Gentlemen aired in 20002, but Gatiss, Pemberton, Shearsmith and Dyson have reunited at various points – most notably, the 2005 big screen spin-off The League of Gentleman: Apocalpyse, and three new episodes in 2017 to mark the two-decade anniversary of the original radio show. Pemberton and Shearsmith have also created spiritual successors Psychoville and Inside No 9, both of which meld similar horror and comedy vibes.
So, here is a quiz to see how much of The League of Gentlemen you have committed to memory.
