League of Gentlemen, The: Complete Series 1 (DVD)

I will make this very easy for you....buy all three seasons, only watch them in the proper order, at least for the first time through, and you will be rewarded with the most unbelievable viewing experience. This is without a doubt the funniest, best acted, best written British TV show ever. The League of Gentlemen are the 3 best actors I have ever seen. Each play around 30 characters in the 3 seasons, most of which are reoccurring characters that come alive and evolve over the course of the show. Every so often, new characters come in and go, but the core characters endear and grow.That is why it is very important to watch this in the proper order as the characters grow, you grow with them. This troupe of 3 male actors is best when portraying women, which seems to be an English thing, but all of the characters are amazing.Listen....I cannot do this series justice here. I can only tell you that if you watch this show from beginning to end, it will become clear. The end of the show is just perfect. The characters all fall into place. They all make sense and you will understand the genius of the 4 who wrote the series, and the 3 of them who bring the characters to life.Please, I beg you, try it...you will not believe how well crafted it is.

My husband and I used to watch this several years ago and we realized that we continue to quote the series even today, often confusing our adolescent daughter. So I decided to buy the first season as a Christmas gift for my husband this year.Be warned: while very funny, this series is also very disturbing. There is quite a bit of implied violence, cannibalism, and sexual assault. There is also a transgender taxi driver who seems a bit dated by today's standards (presented as yet another weird character in the village who regales her clients with all the gory details of her sex change process while driving them around).And yet. . . there is also so much that is subversively funny. I don't regret watching this again but perhaps we shouldn't have let our 14 year old watch the first few episodes with us. Oops.

I have to begin with a warning... this is a series you really have to watch from start to finish. Not only because its addictive but because like "The Prisoner" everything all falls into place by the finale. With each episode, things get more gross and the relationships between the characters get more twisted, especially once you're into the final season (not out on video.) All in all, you'll meet about 60 of the residents of Royston Vassey mostly played by only three actors. (The show itself began on BBC radio... a lot of the characters carried over, though you won't find the Local Shop, and Royston is known as Spent, and there's a hillarious scene in which Mickey wets the carpet during a visualization exersize with Pauline... get the tapes over at Amazon.com's UK site.)Overall, this show is unique. It has been described as Monty Python meets Twin Peaks... I would also have to throw in a bit of the Young Ones, Pedro Almodovar and John Waters. If you can dig that stuff, then you'll definitely enjoy this DVD along with a nice warm glass of aqua vita. You'll have the time of your life...just be sure not to touch the prescious things and refrain from passing solids into the WC ! ! !

This is a dark, dark, dark comedy show that is clearly not for everyone. I love British comedies- from Keeping up Appearances to Shameless and everything in between. This show embodies that subtle humor but adds a generous sprinkle of John Waters style filth. If you're like me and like a little bit of a shock or gross-out factor with your dark comedies you shouldn't be disappointed.I bought all three seasons on DVD after they stopped being available to stream on Netflix and I've since lent them to many friends (not the prudes though!) who have different tastes in comedy and everyone has liked it. The only exception is my husband, who just doesn't get it and has never been into British comedy. To each their own, I guess!

League of Gentlemen is a production that is very hard to describe without making many people to decline to watch on principle.Big mistake.I enjoyed season one very much indeed. It is "an audacious blend of bizarre humor and horror" but that does not serve to adequately describe its delight. The characters are memorable and well-performed throughout, and the tone of the show is spot on.If you have the sort of mind that is bendable and willing to seek out the strange perimeters of humor by all means give it a go. I guarantee that you haven't seen anything quite like it.

This dark comedy from Britain holds up pretty well a decade or so after it was originally aired over there. I really like the intertwined stories / skits ... the Local Shop is the most hilarious bit of the whole program, and while most of the skits are very funny, some I found to be a little bit tedious hence the 4 stars rather than 5.

I have to recommend this series to anyone who loves twisted, warped, strange, dark humor. The characters grab you from the very start, and it’s like a car wreck—you have to stop and watch to see what happens next.

If you like the dark side of the BBC, then why haven't you purchased this DVD yet? Dark, disturbing, occasionally gross, thought provoking (and not necessarily in a good way). Hilarious in places, just plain odd, in others. Things that make you go "hmmmm"... I loved it.TLOG is one of the best things to come from Great Britain's TV scene since Monty Python, and I can certainly recommend it for all BBC fans. Just don't try to watch and eat dinner at the same time... (You were warned...)

Anyone who comes from a small town, be it Northern or otherwise, will recognise some of the characters and their attitudes- such as snub-nosed Edward and Tubbs, owners of the local shop (for local people), who mistrust any outsiders. These are probably the darkest characters in this series (Papa Lazarou doesn't appear until Series 2) and yet they're strangely endearing, even if they are darkly psychotic.The League of Gentlemen is a mix between a sketch show and a comedy series. All the characters live in the fictional town of Royston Vasey, storylines (of sorts) develop, and the characters often interconnect- but quite naturally so. This series has a humorously undramatic storyline- though it is very dramatic for the characters. A new road is being built, meaning that outsiders can travel to Royston Vasey and undo their community. The sense of a community, however bizarre, is something that other comedy shows have lacked. For all its darkness and grotesqueness (such as the Aunt and Uncle who trap their nephew in their insanely immaculate house and are obsessed with bodily functions such as masturbation), there's a degree of heart here that makes the show very watchable.There's many great characters, one of my favourites being Job Centre worker Pauline and her 'dole scum'. Little Britain pinched this set-up of supposed supporter belittling and humiliating her charges to create Weight Watcher Marjorie (who is admittedly terribly funny).The League of Gentlemen is also the name of the comedy troupe behind the show: Jeremy Dyson (who doesn't actually appear on screen), Steve Pemberton, Mark Gatiss and Reece Shearsmith (the latter three play all the main characters). I do enjoy some drag and there is plenty of drag here, whether it's the obvious drag of Barbara (Steve Pemberton), the taxi driver who loves to talk about her forthcoming sex operation and the procedure that this entails, or rich woman Judee Levinson (Reece Shearsmith, looking strangely comfortable in drag).The show has good re-watch value and although you can YouTube the classic bits (as I do with The Fast Show to filter out the boring stuff), it works quite nicely watching the episodes as they are. Bear in mind that the series get progressively darker; this is the most 'accessible'.Welcome to Royston Vasey- you'll never want to leave!EDIT: It has brillant re-watch value. On the second watch you appreciate the tragic aspects. There's many moments in which the laughter track is completely silent because the pathos isn't simply played for laughs. Sketches such as Tubbs and Edward's marriage are dangerously close to drama, as over the course of this series we see Tubbs' optimism and her conflicted desire to explore the outside world. I can't think of any other comedy series that achieves this emotional level.

This 1999 dark comedy with horror elements is set in the fictional village of Royston Vasey and follows the lives of many of the town's bizarre inhabitants such as transgender Barbara of Babs Cabs, bully Pauline who hates ‘dole scum’ at the Job Centre, Aunty Val with her OCD, the vicar hates soap dodging protesters and of course there’s the local shop for local people! The central theme involves the building of a proposed new road through the village, raising the possibility of great numbers of strangers visiting the town. Just how will the local people react to this intrusion, and what is the special delivery Hilary the butcher sells?There’s not many comedies that make me laugh out loud but I’m less than three minutes in and my sides hurt already.If you like risqué pantomime, you’ll love this, but if you don’t get the pantomime Dame, then give this a wide berth. Essentially the cast comprises three actors who brilliantly play most of the disgusting and disturbing characters. Not for the feint of heart this is offensive, crude and rude, but as Kenny Everett would say: “It’s all done in the best possible taste!”

This dark, dark comedic satire represents a milestone in British TV entertainment. Seasons 1 and 2 are faultless. Season 3 introduces some great new characters. Best stay away form the Christmas special.

The League of Gentlemen is one of the top British comedies, in my opinion it's up their with Father Ted, Blackadder, Monty Python etc etc. It's combination of silly humor, very Pythonesque, hilariously witty dialogue and brilliant references to horror references is fantastic and it never fails to crease me! The characters are absolutely brilliant and so strong! It will always be a series I will cherish.

Watchable over and over, If you like the work of these guys you need no convincing