The League of Gentlemen's Projects

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).

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): On the Town with The League of Gentlemen

Edited by Logan - March 03 2019 at 11:05