For years fans of the brilliantly dark and twisted comedy, The League of Gentlemen have awaited for another dose of the alternative humour supplied by Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton, Mark Gatiss and Jeremy Dyson. Their wait came to an end on 18th June 2009 as Shearsmith and Pemberton's new brainchild debuted on BBC Two.
What's It About?
The show is similar to The League of Gentlemen as it has the same dark humour and also uses sketches, the sketches soon blend together as the series unfolds. There are five main characters in the first series who seem to lead their own separate lives but it becomes clear that they are linked as they each receive an eerie letter from a mysterious blackmailer. The letter informs the five, "I know what you did".
The first of these five characters is David Sowerbutts (Pemberton), a simple, unemployed man with an unhealthy obsession of serial killers, who lives with his mother, Maureen (Shearsmith). The fourth episode of the series pays homage to Alfred Hitchcock's film, Rope and involves no sketches as David, Maureen and a man claiming to be a police inspector (Gatiss) are the only characters to appear in it.
The second main character is Mr Jelly (Shearsmith), a depressed, one handed clown who blames his lack of success on a rival clown act, Mr Jolly (Adrian Scarborough). Jolly was previously a doctor and was responsible for losing Jelly's hand in an operation that went wrong.
The third main character is Oscar Lomax (Pemberton), a blind millionaire with a passion for collecting stuffed animals which he calls "commodities". Lomax is aided by a young man he calls Tea Leaf (Daniel Kaluuya) who has been assigned to help Lomax as part of his community service. Lomax needs one more stuffed animal to complete his collection, Snappy the Crocodile.
The fourth main character is Joy Aston (Dawn French), a midwife who believes that a practice baby doll, whom she calls Little Freddie Fruitcake, is actually a real life baby. Aston treats the doll as a real baby to the embarrassment of her husband, George (Pemberton).
Lastly, Robert Greenspan (Jason Tompkins) is a dwarf actor who seemingly holds telekinetic powers, shown when he is angered by the actors with whom he is performing in a pantomime version of Snow White, starring and directed by Christopher Biggins (Biggins). Brian (Shearsmith), who plays the wicked queen and the other dwarves, with the exception of Kerry (Lisa Hammond), make fun of Greenspan in his attempts to woo Debbie (Daisy Haggard), who plays Snow White.
Is It Worth Watching?
Fans of The League of Gentlemen will not be disappointed with this fairly original concept of a dark comedy surrounded by mystery and it is definetly worth a look. Any British comedy fans searching for a new comedy to look at should give this show a shot if they have not already as it won the British Comedy Award for 'Best New British TV Comedy' in 2009.
There has been a one-off special commissioned to broadcast this winter (2010) and a second series of six episodes scheduled to be shown next spring (2011). The first series is now available on DVD both online and in shops, including HMV.
Nicholas Benson - Nicholas Benson is a 22 year old with a passion for writing. Since high school he has been interested in various aspects of literature ...
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