The League of Gentlemen's Projects
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Topic: The League of Gentlemen's Projects
Posted By: Logan
Subject: The League of Gentlemen's Projects
Date Posted: March 03 2019 at 09:37
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As some will have noticed as I've been banging on about this for years, I'm a massive fanboy of The League of Gentlemen and related projects, especially Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith's Psychoville and Inside No. 9 (two people I'd love to meet someday and have a wonderful sense of the grotesque). The League of Gentlemen is: Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith and Jeremy Dyson (unlike the others Dyson rarely performed but was one of those four writers-- he tended to team up with Mark Gatiss in writing and Pemberton and Shearsmith tended to work as a writing team). Mark Gatiss may be best known for co-creating, co-producing Sherlock with Steven Moffat. Gatiss wrote, created and co-wrote many Sherlock episodes. He was also a regular writer, and actor in a few episodes of Doctor Who. For Doctor Who he wrote: - Empress of Mars (2017) - Sleep No More (2015) - Robot of Sherwood (2014) - The Crimson Horror (2013) - Cold War (2013) - Night Terrors (2011) - Victory of the Daleks (2010) - The Idiot's Lantern (2006) - The Unquiet Dead (2005) And he acted in five Doctor Who episodes (first appearing as Lazarus in the Lazarus Experiment and last in Twice Upon a Time as the Captain). He also is behind An Adventure in Space and Time (which various Who fans should know), and the domentaries A History of Horror with Mark Gatiss and Horror Europa with Mark Gatiss Jeremy Dyson has been a prolific writer on various shows. He co-created Funland, co-wrote and co-created the stage play Ghost Stories and directed and co-wrote the film version of it. Steve Pemberton has written for and appeared in many things. In Doctor Who he appeared as Strackman Lux in Forest of the Dead and Silence in the Library (a favourite Doctor Who two-parter of mine). Reece Shearsmith has appeared in many shows and films including a modern favourite modern film of mine, High-Rise, and in the Gatiss penned episode of Doctor Who, Sleep No More, which is not a favourite of mine. Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearmith are the talents behind Psychoville (a serial that I loved) and the, I think, excellent anthology series Inside No. 9, which I wish got more love on this side of the pond (available on Britbox, wish it got a wider audience by being on our Netflix -- those who like shows such as The Twilight Zone, Tales from the Crypt, and Black Mirror to an extent). It ranges from comedy, to horror, to tragedy... We had one other big fan at this site, but that person is sadly no longer around. Anyway, I'm listing the big projects that the League of Gentlemen were behind (any related League of Gentlemen projects such as the radio series, or film version, fall under The League of Gentlemen). Multiple votes are enabled. I'm curious to see how many, or perhaps that should be how few, are into these things. I would guess that Sherlock would get the most votes. I have yet to see Ghost Stories, but I've heard very good things about this horror film.  I doubt this will garner much interest at this site, but I want to spread the word (hopefully at least various of our Brits will chime in). ------------- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXcp9fYc6K4IKuxIZkenfvukL_Y8VBqzK" rel="nofollow - Duos for fave acts |
Replies:
Posted By: Chaser
Date Posted: March 03 2019 at 09:55
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Brilliantly dark humour and very much appreciated by a cult following in the UK. It's the sort of humour that appeals to a select audience, so there are those that love it and those that hate it and refuse to watch it. I like it very much, although I have to be in the right mood for it. Voted for "The League of Gentlemen", which was the original and, for me, the best. I watched some, but not all, of Psychoville and Inside No 9, and I haven't seen Funland or Ghost Stories. Such warped but incredible senses of humour... ------------- Songs cast a light on you |
Posted By: Logan
Date Posted: March 03 2019 at 11:00
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I absolutely love The League of Gentlemen, and love its quirky, dark, twisted and sometimes quite grotesque humour with great characters. Even horrid characters can be quite lovable, although I wouldn't invite Papa Lazarou into my house -- especially with the wife about ("You're my wife now"). While it was being recommended to me back in my early internet forum days, I didn't manage to watch it until this decade. I actually saw Psychoville before it as I was looking for series with dark comedy (Misfits etc.). Anyway,The League of Gentlemen blew me away (probably my favourite comedy series), and I thought the revival specials were wonderful too. I love British dark comedy, and The League of Gentlemen is something very special. By the way, for those not familiar with the radio series (worth listening to): https://archive.org/details/TheLeagueOfGentlemenBBCRadioRip" rel="nofollow - On the Town with The League of Gentlemen ------------- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXcp9fYc6K4IKuxIZkenfvukL_Y8VBqzK" rel="nofollow - Duos for fave acts |
Posted By: Logan
Date Posted: March 05 2019 at 07:13
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^ I should have said, "On the Town with The League of Gentlemen" is worth listening to if one is a fan of The League of Gentlemen. For my favourite British comedy radio series, I'd go with Andy Hamilton's devilicious "Old Harry's Game" (one of my favourite comedies of any medium). These shows are less popular/ known than I would have thought (two years ago I did a British comedy poll ( http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=107721" rel="nofollow - http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=107721 ), and while TLoG did better there than here, it still only got six votes, as compared to Extras which got 26 votes (I had included Black Mirror in that list despite not seeing it as a comedy because the British comedy guide listed it -- and my poll was multiple votes, but from the comments Extras was the favourite, I love it too). Looking at some IMDB stats: Peep Show which got 10 votes in that poll got an 8.6 out of 10 at IMDB with 44,731 votes. Extras, which got 26 votes in that poll, got 8.3/10 with 47,330 at IMDB The IT Crow which got 12 votes in that poll got 8.5/10 with 115,392 at IMDB. The Office (British version, which I thought would do well in my poll) got one vote in my poll, and 8.5/10 with 84,674 votes. Garth Marenghi's Darkplace gets 8.5/10 with 14,155 votes at IMDB. The League of Gentlemen at IMDB got 8.3/10 with 9,036 votes cast (so quite a niche show, much more niche according to that than I realised). Inside No. 9 has 8.4/10 with 7,696 votes (also more niche than I realised, especially for a show that has been commissioned for five series by BBC, fifth series coming out this year) Psychoville with 0 votes in my poll had 7.9/10 with 5,645 ratings at IMDB. For a classic British show, Monty Python's Flying Circus gets 8.8/10 with 58,129 ratings at IMDB (had IMDB existed when that show came out I'm sure it would fare much better). Now compare to shows such as Friends (American shows do fare better than British shows): Friends, a show I never got into, gets 8.9/10 with 651,564 votes. Full House does worse than I would have thought with 6.7/10 and 48,158 votes. Seinfeld gets 8.9/10 with 219,742 votes The US version of The Office gets 8.8/10 with 284,924 votes. That all ended up being very uninteresting. Anyway, while The League of Gentlemen inspired Psychoville and Inside No. 9 -- owe a debt to that experience -- I do think that both are worth watching in their own right. Inside No. 9, especially, I think is brilliant and there's so much variation (it might be a bit stagey for some). Some might like some episodes and not others. It is an anthology series that takes different genre approaches, but the love of horror comes through in a great deal, like with Psychoville and The League of Gentlemen. The 12 Days of Christine, for instance, was heart-wrenching to me -- it is not something one would expect of a comedy anthology series. I do miss Squonk19 who was a fan of this series, now when series five comes out I probably will have no one to talk about the show with (I generally don't watch such stuff with my wife, though she was impressed with Black Mirror). Maybe I'll participate in Den of Geek, maybe Reddit, or some such place for such discussion. ------------- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXcp9fYc6K4IKuxIZkenfvukL_Y8VBqzK" rel="nofollow - Duos for fave acts |