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''Welcome to '''Royston Vasey'''. You'll never leave.''
 
British [[Sketch Comedy]]/[[Sit ComSitcom]], with a very dark tone of humour, and plenty of [[Horror Tropes|horror trappings]].
 
Set in the town of Royston Vasey (or Spent, in the original radio version), the show focuses on the very strange lives of the inhabitants: their warped obsessions, quirks and relationships. Also notable in that almost all characters are played by one of only three actors: Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith, and [[Mark Gatiss]].
 
Came forty-first in ''[[Britain's Best Sitcom (TV)|Britain's Best Sitcom]]''.
 
Not to be confused with;
* ''[[The League of Gentlemen (Filmfilm)|The League of Gentlemen]]'', a classic [[The Caper|Caper]] movie from 1960, after which the show was named.
* The short lived band started by guitarist Robert Fripp that, through some excessively odd reason, share many qualities with this show...
* ''[[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]''
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* [[Aerith and Bob]]: Chloe & Radclyffe.
* [[Affably Evil]] - Hilary Briss
* [[All Devouring Black Hole Loan Sharks]] - Parodied with Mr. Lisgoe and [[Surrounded Byby Idiots|his incompetent collectors.]]
* [[And I Must Scream]] - {{spoiler|The animals in Papa Lazarou's circus, who are really his human victims.}} They do scream, actually, but no one can hear them...
* [[Animal Motifs]] - Harvey Denton is obsessed with toads, and collects them. He also greatly resembles one, and the interior of the Denton home has a sort of a dull green colour scheme, like a lily pond.
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* [[The Butcher]] - Hilary Briss, a literal butcher who sells some kind of very illegal and hideously immoral "special stuff".
* [[Bilingual Bonus]] - Dialogue between Herr Lipp, Lotte and Justin at the climax of Lipp's attempts to seduce the schoolboy. Lotte tries to warn Justin about Lipp in German:
{{quote| '''Herr Lipp''' "Er konnt kein Deutsch. Er ist ''meine'' junge."<ref>"He knows no German. He is ''my'' boy."</ref><br />
'''Lotte''' "Denn Gott hilfe ihn."<ref>"Then God help him."</ref> }}
* [[Buried Alive]] - The fate of {{spoiler|Justin Smart}}, although he is given a funnel through which to breathe.
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** Alvin: "Home is the hunter!"
* [[Cats Are Mean]] - Cat enthusiast Dougall Siepp is a scary guy.
* [[Caught Withwith Your Pants Down]] - Parodied and inverted. Harvey Denton has a peculiar paranoia about walking in on his nephew, Benjamin, and has an entire, [[Spit Take]]-inducing collection of [[Unusual Euphemism|Unusual Euphemisms]] ready. There has never been any concrete evidence of Benjamin actually masturbating.
* [[Celebrity Paradox]] - Mick McNamara claims that an episode of Tom Baker-era ''[[Doctor Who]]'' was filmed at the Stump Hole caverns. So why does Mick, and approximately one third of the town, look exactly like that guy who played Dr. Lazarus in "[[Doctor Who/NS/Recap/S3 E6S29/E06 The Lazarus Experiment|The Lazarus Experiment]]" and wrote the episode "[[Doctor Who/NS/Recap/S2 E7S28/E07 The IdiotsIdiot's Lantern|The Idiot's Lantern]]"? And why does another third of the town so greatly resemble the guy who played Strackman Lux in "[[Doctor Who/NS/Recap/S4 E8S30/E08 Silence in Thethe Library|Silence in the Library]]" and "[[Doctor Who/NS/Recap/S4 E9S30/E09 Forest of the Dead|Forest of the Dead]]?" And why {{spoiler|does Dougal Siepp so greatly resemble the Ninth Doctor?}}
* [[Characterization Marches On]] - In Series 2, Herr Lipp was essentially a creep and a sociopath; in the Christmas Special, though still a nasty pederast, he at least shows some compassion and sacrifices himself to save Matthew. By the time we get to the Movie, he is a kind and caring guy (even his turn to violence is intended to save the locals from what he believes to be endless misery) who is incidentally campy, a far cry from the selfish date-rapist he originally was.
* [[Cheshire Cat Grin]] - Hilary Briss gives these a lot.
* [[Chess Withwith Death]] - The stage show has a man gambling his soul against an [[Louis Cypher|ambiguously diabolical]] figure. However, the [[Deal Withwith the Devil|devil figure]] doesn't want to play chess; he wants to play {{spoiler|"Go Johnny Go Go Go Go"}}.
* [[Christmas Special]], complete with [[Bad Santa]]
* [[Corpsing]] - Shearsmith, with Pauline, during the live show.
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* [[Corrupt Hick]] - Edward and Tubbs Tattsyrup who also supply some [[Brother-Sister Incest]]
* [[Cult]] - Solutions, Inc. in the [[Christmas Special]].
* [[A Day in Thethe Limelight]] - Most episodes of Season 3 focus on previously-minor characters.
* [[Dirty Old Man]] - Pop
* [[The Ditz]] - Mickey, who is clearly mentally handicapped.
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* [[Exposition of Immortality]]: When Papa Lazarou is going through his Book of Wives in Season Three, some of the photos are clearly old, sepia ones that heavily imply that he's a lot older than he appears. There are more on the wall of his room, too.
* [[Eye Scream]] - Hilary Briss is seen scaring children with a pair of sheep's eyes, which he then eats.
* [[Fag Hag]] - [[Deconstruction|Deconstructed]] with Tish, who unintentionally offends the hell out of all her fairly [[StraightInvisible Gayto Gaydar]] friends. Mark Gatiss (who is gay) was probably very angry when he wrote her scenes.
* [[Fan Disservice]] - Tubbs torturing the construction men while dancing around nude "The Road to Royston Vasey."
* [[Fat Idiot]] - Barry Baggs, the debt collector. Also a [[Big Eater]]. In the live show "The League of Gentlemen Are Behind You", his idiot status is subverted--and may even have been [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]--when he outwits and (in the epilogue) replaces his boss.
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* [[Generation Xerox]] - In The [[Christmas Special]], we see a bit of Royston Vasey in the 1890s, including Victorian versions of Harvey, Barbara, Chinnery, Pauline, Mickey, and Ross
* [[Gender Bender]] - Barbara the transgendered cab driver.
{{quote| '''Barbara''': Have you heard what they're saying about the Beast of Royston Vasey?<br />
'''Mrs. Levinson''': Now, Barbara, people can be very cruel. }}
* [[Grotesque Gallery]] - Because almost all of the characters are played by the same three actors, a variety of prosthetics are used, some of which are profoundly hideous. Of particular note are Edward, Tubbs, Iris, Harvey, Bernice, Mickey, Stella, Vinnie & Reenie, Ally, and Herr Lipp.
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** In the original radio series, this trope was played straight, but the writers gave it a more creative spin for the TV version.
* [[He Who Must Not Be Seen]] - "that Merrill." Frequently mentioned by Vinnie and Reenie, but never actually appears.
** David Tattsyrup becomes a [[The Voice]] variant after Tubbs and Edward take him back in.
* [[Hoist Byby His Own Petard]] - Harvey--or rather hoist by his own {{spoiler|pet toad}}.
* [[Homage]] - Edward frequently references ''[[The Wicker Man]]'', and Chloe & Radclyffe obviously parody ''[[The Shining]]''. Papa Lazarou's introductory episode features a few quotes from ''[[Freaks]]'', and Geoff's subplot in Season 2 parodied ''[[Deliverance]]''. In fact, at least one [[horror Movie]] gets referenced per episode.
* [[Hospital Hottie]] - One of the few times an actual woman appeared on the show was when Al brought home a nurse named Patricia as a date. Unfortunately, Pop ruined everything by loudly talking about how great the film version of ''[[Watership Down]]'' is, discussing porn, and trying to steal Patricia.
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* [[Lamarck Was Right]] - Mr. Chinnery inherits his ancestor's curse.
* [[Laser-Guided Karma]] - after awful restart officer Pauline is sacked, she has to sit through restart sessions of her own, with an even ''worse'' one.
{{quote| '''[[The Chew Toy|Mickey:]]''' Pauline... she's worse than ''you''!}}
* [[Laughably Evil]] - All of the villainous characters. It is a comedy, after all.
* [[Little People Are Surreal]] - Papa Lazarou's circus.
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* [[Scary Scarecrows]]
* [[Serial Killer]] - The Tattsyrups
* [[She Is's All Grown Up]] - In the wrongest way possible.
* [[Shout-Out]]
** [[Mark Gatiss]] based his performance of Mr. Chinnery on [[Peter Davison]]'s as Tristan Farnan in the BBC production of ''[[All Creatures Great and Small (TV)|All Creatures Great and Small]]''.
** In episode two of Season 1 ''The Road To Royston Vasey,'' two construction workers visit the Local Shop and end up being abducted by Tubbs and Edward. Their names? [[Diamonds Are Forever (Film)|Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd.]]
** "Royston Vasey" is the real name of comedian Roy "Chubby" Brown, who appears in a [[Cameo]] as [[Actor Allusion|the mayor]]. The mayor's name is Larry Vaughn, which is also the name of the mayor in ''[[Jaws (Filmfilm)|Jaws]]''. Recursive [[Shout-Out]]!
* [[Show Within a Show]] - The plays of the Legz Akimbo theatre troupe...
** [[Stylistic Suck]] - ...are awful.
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* [[Take Our Word for It]] - We never find out what is in Hilary Briss's "special stuff". His surname [[Meaningful Name|may be a clue...]]
* [[There's No B in Movie]] - [[Meaningful Name|Meaningfully named]] Harry Portrait and Ally Welles, who are obsessed with horror movies. However, some of the films they watch are quite good, such as ''[[The Shining]]'', ''[[Alien]]'', and Stephen Loncraine's version of ''[[Richard III]]'', starring Sir Ian McKellen. As long as it has killin's, they're happy.
* [[Throw the Dog Aa Bone]] - The end of Season 3 has, among other things, Geoff Tipps finally able to make people laugh. Similarly, the stage show gives Les McQueen a successful solo career, {{spoiler|but then he gets electrocuted to death by a microphone before he can sing a word.}}
* [[Tomato Surprise]] - {{spoiler|Iris and Mrs. Levinson are actually mother and daughter. The stage show ups the ante by revealing that they're really father and son.}}
* [[Too Dumb to Live]] - Basically the premise of the "crime-fighting supercar" skit.
* [[Too Much Information]] - Much of Barbara's shtick is telling people all the details of her operation. Similiarly, Iris tells a few too many things about her and Ron's sex life.
* [[Torches and Pitchforks]] - {{spoiler|An angry mob burns down the Local Shop at the end of the second season.}}
* [[Town Withwith a Dark Secret]] - Several secrets.
* [[Transparent Closet]] - Herr Lip reveals to Justin that "I am a queen." Justin pretends to be astounded out of politeness.
* [[The Twink]] - In Season 2, Herr Lip has a crush on a not-quite-legal schoolboy named Justin Smart. In the [[Christmas Special]], he has a similiar crush on a boy named Matthew Parker.
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* [[Sliding Scale of Comedy and Horror]]
* [[Sorry I Left the BGM On]] - Used as a [[Running Gag]] when the ''League'' theme music is repeatedly revealed to be [[Cell Phone|mobile phone]] ringtones.
* [[Special Guest]] - David Warner (aka [[Time Bandits|Evil]], aka [[Tron|Dillinger/Sark]],[[Batman: theThe Animated Series|Ra's al Ghul]], aka [[BaldursBaldur's Gate|Jon Irenicus]], aka [[Discworld|Lord Downey]], aka [[Freakazoid!|The Lobe]]) as Mr. Pea.
* [[Talking to Himself]] - There's one scene where Geoff, Edward, and Papa Lazarou all discuss the fact that they are played by the same actor.
* [[Throwing Your Sword Always Works|Throwing Your Bardiche Always Works]]
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{{reflist}}
{{BAFTA TV Award for Best Comedy (Programme or Series)}}
[[Category:British Series]]
[[Category:Britains Best Sitcom (TV)]]▼
[[Category:Sketch Comedy]]
[[Category:The League of Gentlemen]]
[[Category:TV Series]]
▲[[Category:BritainsBritain's Best Sitcom (TV)]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:League of Gentlemen (TV series), The}}
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