BBC - Derby - Around Derby - Derbyshire in TV and Film Tour of Royston Vasey The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites. FACTS The League of Gentlemen is written by Jeremy Dyson, co-written and performed by Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith. The leader of High Peak Borough Council, Councillor John Hallsworth, lives in Hadfield and represents Hadfield St Andrews ward. John Garlick ran the Anchor inn and Jonathan Shaw ran the Spinners' Arms in Hadfield in 1835. PRINT THIS PAGE View a printable version of this page. This multi-award winning programme delves into the disturbingly dark and distinctly bizarre behaviour of the most peculiar ‘locals’ on this planet. The League of Gentlemen is written by Jeremy Dyson and CO-written and performed by Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith. The comedy is set in the village of Royston Vasey - but, in Derbyshire, we know it better as the otherwise sleepy village of Hadfield.

The one main street in Hadfield had looked unchanged since the 1950s and with one of the shopfronts proclaiming Brigadoon, the casual visitor could have been forgiven for wondering when the next wake-up call was due. You'll never leave! All was to change when a roving BBC location researcher wandered into town, running out of time to find a small, quiet northern town that could pass as a quirky, isolated, fictional town where visitors were frowned upon and murky secrets dwelt behind every door. One look at the unsuspecting streets of Hadfield and Royston Vasey was born - the TV filming circus duly rolled into town. Shopfronts were transformed - the old fishmonger's became a veterinary surgery and the empty estate agent found new life as a dating agency. The little handicraft emporium was transformed into a joke shop one day and a video rental shop a week later. For the resident enduring the mundane daily drive home, multiple double takes were in order and wry smiles the reaction to the temporary excitement. Eventually a circus big-top and small funfair were set up nearby and locals were invited along to populate the attraction.

Hadfield, Derbyshire - Wikipedia, Photos and Videos Hadfield, Derbyshire NEXT GO TO RESULTS [51 .. 100] WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE Station Road – The main street in Hadfield Hadfield Coordinates : 53°28′N 1°58′W﻿ / ﻿53.46°N 1.97°W﻿ / 53.46; -1.97 Hadfield is a town in the High Peak borough of Derbyshire , England. It has two wards (North and South) in the High Peak District Council. The total population of these two wards at the 2011 Census was 6,305. [1] [2] It lies on the south side of the River Etherow , which forms the border between Derbyshire and Greater Manchester . Hadfield lies on the western edge of the Peak District , and is close to Glossop , from which several local amenities and services are served. Contents Geography[ edit ] Hadfield lies between Bottoms Reservoir and the Glossop Brook, on the southern side of the River Etherow valley, which is known as Longdendale .

The parish lies between 394 feet (120 m) and 690 feet (210) m above sea level. Hadfield is 12.5 miles (20.1 km) from Manchester. History[ edit ] Hadfield was part of the Manor of Glossop, and at the time of the Domesday survey belonged to William the Conqueror . [3] King Henry I granted the land to William Peveril . In 1157 King Henry II gave it to the Abbey of Basingwerk . In 1537 King Henry VIII gave it to the Earl of Shrewsbury from whom it came to the Howard family ( Dukes of Norfolk ). While the Howards were responsible in the 1810s for the development of Glossop, it was the Sidebottom family who developed Hadfield. They bought the Waterside and Bridge Mill complex from John Turner and John Thornley in 1820. For three generations they developed these mills, as a large spinning and weaving combine.

They built their own branch railway to the mill, and in 1880 ran 293,000 spindles and 4,800 looms. In 1896 the Sidebottoms went into liquidation. Bridge Mill was destroyed by fire in 1899, but Waterside Mill was bought by John Gartside and Co of Ashton-under-Lyne . Gartside's re-equipped the mills with automatic looms from the United States and installed new engines and electric lighting. [4] During the First World War (1914–18), the mill was taken over by the Greenfield Mill Company but parts of the mill were used to produce munitions. After the war, the company declined. In 1940 the mill was occupied by Maconochie's Foodstuffs Ltd, which had been bombed out of its previous premises in London. By 1954, about half of the original building had been demolished, and more was to go. In 1976 the site was redeveloped and renamed as the Hadfield Trading Estate.

[5] Station Mill was built in 1834 by Thomas and Edward Platt, members of a family who had farmed Longdendale for generations. The family owned this cotton mill for 68 years, before selling it in 1923 to E. Wilman & Sons, which converted it to silk noil spinning. The mill closed in 1989. Hadfield Mills were corn mills from before 1819. In 1874 Thomas Rhodes and Sons converted the mills to the manufacture of cotton. There were 1,000 workers there in 1873 but it closed in 1932. In 1940 it was reopened by Hadfield Worsted Mills Ltd for cloth manufacture. [5] Governance[ edit ] Hadfield is administered by High Peak Borough Council at the Town/District/Borough level of Government, and by Derbyshire County Council at County level. Representation on Derbyshire County Council is split between the divisions of Glossop and Charlesworth, and Etherow – with the majority of the town being in the Etherow division.

Etherow division contains Hadfield North, Hadfield South, Gamesley and the large and sparsely populated Tintwistle ward. Glossop and Charlesworth division contains amongst others Padfield ward (which takes the northern side of Station Road, the main shopping street). These boundaries were set in 2013. Division Transport[ edit ] Hadfield Mills, Padfield The village is served by Hadfield railway station and Dinting on the electrified line . Hadfield is the terminus, all trains run through Dinting to Glossop and back through Dinting to Manchester Piccadilly . The railway, known as the Woodhead Line , used to run through to Penistone and Sheffield via the Woodhead Tunnel but passenger services were withdrawn in 1970. Goods trains ran until 1981 when Hadfield became the terminus. The trackbed to the east has been adopted as part of the Longdendale Trail footpath. The A57 , which links Manchester to Sheffield via the Snake Pass , passes to the south of Hadfield, from Woolley Bridge to Dinting Vale.

The A628 road , from Manchester to Barnsley and Sheffield over the Woodhead Pass , runs on the other side of the River Etherow through Hollingworth and Tintwistle . It is this road that the proposed Mottram–Tintwistle Bypass is to relieve. Hadfield is within close proximity of the Greater Manchester county boundary, and some services are provided with this in mind. Though lying within Derbyshire and the East Midlands, some of Hadfield's transport facilities are managed by the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive , whilst Tameside and Glossop Acute Services, based in Tameside , Greater Manchester, is the NHS Trust which operates in the area. Also, it has a stagecoach Bus Service, 237, going from Glossop to Ashton-under-Lyne, every 40 minutes up until 6pm then running every hour. Media[ edit ] The television series The League of Gentlemen was filmed in Hadfield, which doubled as the fictional town of Royston Vasey .

In the film spin-off from the original series, The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse , Hadfield appears as itself when the characters from the TV series enter into the real world through a portal below the church (actually in Ireland). The statue featured in the series and film's opening credits is the war memorial, commemorating lives lost in the First and Second World Wars. Welcome to the real Royston Vasey - You'll never leave | The Independent Media Welcome to the real Royston Vasey - You'll never leave Home of simpletons, sadists, fetishists, xenophobes, thugs, psychopaths, nudists, nosebleeders, kidnappers, toad worshippers, mass-murderers (and other well-adjusted residents of a typical small town in the north of England) by Brian Viner Thursday 17 February 2000 00:00 BST Click to follow The Independent Online The number 397 bus - destination Hyde - rattles along Station Road, Hadfield, followed, from a ramshackle Manchester Evening News hoarding, by the eyes of Harold Shipman.

Here, it seems, is conclusive proof that fact is far grislier and more macabre than fiction. But in Hadfield, a north Derbyshire village sprawled across a Pennine valley, fact and fiction have collided with a terrible crash. For Hadfield doubles as Royston Vasey, put firmly on the map by BBC2's The League of Gentlemen, and populated by an extraordinary assortment of weirdos. The fictional locals are so weird that when a freak show came to town, it quickly scarpered, out-freaked by such characters as Hilary Briss, the apparently cannibalistic butcher. Yet according to some, Royston Vasey is but a pale shadow of Hadfield. The number 397 bus - destination Hyde - rattles along Station Road, Hadfield, followed, from a ramshackle Manchester Evening News hoarding, by the eyes of Harold Shipman. Here, it seems, is conclusive proof that fact is far grislier and more macabre than fiction. But in Hadfield, a north Derbyshire village sprawled across a Pennine valley, fact and fiction have collided with a terrible crash.

For Hadfield doubles as Royston Vasey, put firmly on the map by BBC2's The League of Gentlemen, and populated by an extraordinary assortment of weirdos. The fictional locals are so weird that when a freak show came to town, it quickly scarpered, out-freaked by such characters as Hilary Briss, the apparently cannibalistic butcher. Yet according to some, Royston Vasey is but a pale shadow of Hadfield. "If you put the cast in the street next to the locals, and I'm not ruling myself out, you wouldn't be able to tell them apart," says Barbara Hollingworth, plain-speaking, chain-smoking, twinkle-eyed owner of the village haberdashery. "There was a man outside the post office the other day and his nose turned up all on its own. He didn't need Sellotape.

And on the day the TV crew changed the sign above Mettrick the butcher's to H Briss, a woman popped her head round my door and said, 'Barbara, has Mettrick sold 'is shop?' I said, 'No, it's for the filming', and she said, 'Oh.' The next day they'd moved the sign, and the same woman came in and said, 'I see Mettrick's bought 'is shop back.' So, you see, they don't need to write scripts. They just need to sit in the back of my shop for a morning." William Hall, a clothing salesman visiting Hadfield on business, overhears this, and recalls with a chuckle that he once stopped to ask directions to Hadfield and was advised to continue on the same road for a mile "then 'turn right by the black and white cow', as if the cow was a permanent flipping fixture". Mr Hall lives near Holmfirth, the location, 15 miles away, for the venerable BBC comedy Last of the Summer Wine, and now home to the likes of Summer Wine Taxis, Summer Wine Car Hire, Compo's Cafe, even the Wrinkled Stocking Cafe.

The association has been milked beyond reason, Mr Hall believes, and warns Hadfield traders not to make the same mistakes. Of course, the nation is unlikely to embrace Tubbs and Edward, mad porcine proprietors of Royston Vasey's Local Shop, quite as it has Nora Batty. And yet The League of Gentlemen - the second series of which concludes tomorrow - already has a following devoted enough to make the pilgrimage to Royston Vasey. A coach party from Nottingham University recently descended on the Mason's Arms, which conveniently doubles on the telly as the Mason's Arms ("I think they would have changed the name, but it's on the windows," explains landlady Linda Grogan, happily). And fans have come from as far afield as Holland and Germany in search of the Local Shop, which in fact is a three-sided, purpose-built edifice on remote Marsden Moor. Some shopkeepers grumbled when filming forced them to close for a day or two, but they're not grumbling now.

Indeed, Gina Alexander, who runs the sandwich shop, Frank's Place (better known to League of Gentlemen enthusiasts as the fast-food joint Burger Me) has started opening on Sundays to catch the growing tourist trade. Might she actually change the shop's name to Burger Me? William Hall of Holmfirth would recognise it as the start of a descent down a slippery slope. But she has been giving it serious consideration. "I don't know, I might just put it in brackets," she says. "I'm not sure. When you see them spitting on the burgers and bursting spots on them, well, it's not such a good advert, is it? Actually, the girl who works here on a Saturday morning hadn't seen that particular episode the night before, and she was quite offended when people came in the next day and asked her not to spit on their butties." That was life's imitation of art, but in Hadfield, art also imitates life. An anonymous source assures me that five members of The League of Gentlemen crew "were freaked" when an eccentric local cafÃ© owner told them menacingly that, "I can't do you any food...

but I can make you a tuna sandwich." However, to be fair to Hadfield, its quirks are typical of any small community, especially in the north of England. As a small-town northerner myself, I write with authority. And the League of Gentlemen themselves - namely Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith and Jeremy Dyson - are northerners too, from Darlington, Chorley, Hull and Leeds respectively. They revisited their roots to create the characters of Royston Vasey. Harvey and Val, for instance, who make life a toad-infested hell for their nephew Benjamin, sprang from "that thing of having a difficult stay with relatives, when you're feeling awkward even though they keep telling you to make yourself at home. But we did that joke and it only lasted half a page, so then we added this non sequitur, 'Perhaps you'd like to see Harvey's toads?' and it grew from there." So says Jeremy Dyson, the only member of the quartet who does not appear on screen. I am now safely back in Crouch End, north London, having lunch with the League of Gentlemen.

Aged between 30 and 33 they are, most disappointingly, affable, charming and ordinary, related only by the odd dimple or slight mannerism to their gallery of grotesques. With unfailing good humour they fend off suggestions that the second series is not only dark, but in places too dark, pointing out that they have only once been referred to the Broadcasting Standards Council "and we got off". They have not yet been courted by advertising agencies, they tell me, but given the growing popularity of some of the show's catchphrases - "This is a local shop, for local people, there's nothing for you here" - it seems only a matter of time. There must be some manufacturers brazen enough to be associated with death, torture and kidnapping. "Maybe Benetton," says Dyson. Endearingly, they rattle off a bizarrely eclectic list of the show's celebrity fans, including Sir Paul McCartney, Steve Coogan, Toyah Willcox, Charles Dance, Ronnie Corbett and Sir John Birt - who recently cited it, along with The Human Body and The Cops, as one of the three shows that reflected the breadth of his achievements at the BBC.

Better still, they share with me their sources of inspiration. The restart officer Pauline - who damned her charges as "a work-shy set of bastards!" during a workshop on self-esteem for the long-term unemployed - was, apparently, based on a real restart officer. "Wood Green, 1992, and she was called Pauline too," says Shearsmith. "I hear writs flying," says Gatiss. "You don't honestly think that anyone would admit to being the model for Pauline, do you?" counters Shearsmith. More pertinently, the fact that Shearsmith was engaged on a restart course in 1992 shows how far they have all come in a relatively short time. They met at college, formed a live comedy act and called themselves the League of Gentlemen after the film starring Jack Hawkins - "a kind of genteel Reservoir Dogs," Gatiss explains. There followed a classic case of comedy evolution. Success at the Edinburgh Fringe begat a successful radio series which in turn begat the hit TV series. On radio, the bleak northern town was called Spent. When they moved to telly, having tired of the joke, they renamed it Royston Vasey.

Which, rather wonderfully, is the real name of the notoriously ribald stand-up comedian Roy "Chubby" Brown. "We read it somewhere, and thought it sounded like a place," says Pemberton. A "dead chuffed" Chubby Brown duly accepted a cameo role as the mayor (and was spotted proudly having his photograph taken next to the sign that declares "Welcome to Royston Vasey - You'll Never Leave"). So Chubby Brown, not Hadfield, is the real Royston Vasey. Although it is Hadfield, not Chubby Brown, that seems born to it. Originally, though, Hadfield was merely one of several towns and villages being considered. For a while, Todmorden in Lancashire was the hot favourite, especially when the Gentlemen spotted a drunk, who had been standing in the street for hours roaring abuse at passers-by, lurching into the dentist's. "We had visions of him actually being the dentist," says Gatiss, "and going in to find him politely saying 'next please'." Still, anything Todmorden can do, Hadfield can do better.

The driver of the Royston Vasey taxi, Barbara, is a butch man with a gruff voice, saving up for a sex-change operation. "And there's a real transsexual in Hadfield," Gatiss adds. "He invited me in for a cup of tea, and told me he lived in Back Bottoms. You couldn't write it, could you?" But, of course, the League of Gentlemen could. And probably will. The final episode of the second series of 'The League of Gentlemen' is on BBC2, tomorrow, 10pm Glossop Hotels from £99 | Cheap Hotels | lastminute.com Hotels in Glossop Hotels in Glossop If Glossop looks familiar, it’s because you’ve seen it on TV. The market town was used as the fictional town of Royston Vasey in The League of Gentlemen. As such, it’s something of a tourist attraction in its own right. With the increased popularity and growing creative industry in the area, Glossop has become one of Derbyshire’s more upmarket towns. A direct train link to Manchester has added to the town’s tourist appeal.

Glossop has also produced some famous creative people, such as Vivienne Westwood and Hilary Mantel. Family fun in Glossop A popular family destination is Manor Park, which has a miniature railway and a sensory garden. If you want to tackle the crazy golf course, you’ll need to bring your own equipment. For very small kids, the soft play areas at Rooney and Moos Play Centre are ideal. On sunny days, spend an afternoon wandering around Old Glossop’s stone cottages. The centre of the old town has a medieval cross, which was restored in 2013. The original parts of the cross date back to the 13th century. The Peak District The official slogan of Glossop is ‘the gateway to the Peak District National Park’. It’s close to the Dark Peak, with high moors and more challenging walks and hikes. A large chunk of the Dark Peak is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). As the area is largely uninhabited, you may occasionally find the wreckage of planes which crashed here years ago. Glossop is also a stop along the 215-mile Trans Pennine Trail cycle route from Southport to Hornsea.

You can also walk or ride a horse along the trail. It meets local roads in several places, making parts of the route easier to navigate. Given the town’s convenience for the Peak District, Glossop hotels are relatively easy to come by. Shopping and dining Glossop’s high street is filled with independent shops and boutiques. Browse a bookshop, admire some local artworks or leaf through rails of designer clothes. Restaurants in the town have the same strong individuality. There’s Ayubowan, serving ‘contemporary Sri Lankan cuisine’, and Pico Lounge is a continental café bar. Vegan food is on the menu at The Globe, which also has home-brewed beer on offer. Glossop pudding is a local favourite. It’s made using ‘wimberries’ – the Derbyshire word for bilberries – and apple. x 'Gentlemen' prefer Bacup (From Lancashire Telegraph) Jobs Business Directory Local Info Dating Buy Sell Book an Ad 'Gentlemen' prefer Bacup BACUP's Co-op store became Hammonds for the day as the BBC2 comedy The League of Gentlemen was filmed in the town.

Producer Jemma Rodgers revealed she had been planning to use Bacup as the fictional town of Royston Vasey, but Hadfield near Glossop in Derbyshire was eventually selected. But she said: "When we needed a supermarket location for filming I took the chance to come back to Bacup and use the Co-op store." The League of Gentlemen are Mark Gattiss, Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton and Jeremy Dyson. They all write the series of sketches and all but Jeremy appear in the comedy. Jemma said: "They met at college and have been performing their humour at fringe festivals for about five or six years. "They also did a series on Radio Four which won an award and the first TV series, which was shown in January and will be repeated starting on November 12, won the prestigious Golden Rose of Montreux Award. "They take everyday situations and bring out the natural comedy. In the first series, The League created more than 60 characters. In the second series, the three actors take on the roles of 80 different people." Jeremy said: "The first series exceeded all our hopes, both in its reception and the success with which the production team brought our vision to the screen.

"It's very exciting being on the edge of making series two because now we're introducing some completely new characters as well as visiting parts of Royston Vasey we've never seen before." The Bacup scenes will be used in episodes five and six and the second series begins on January 14. Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion. Down 'Royston' way (From The Bolton News) Jobs Business Directory Local Info Dating Buy Sell Book an Ad Down 'Royston' way EVER been to Royston Vasey? It's a weird northern town populated by an amazing array of misfits and oddballs like Pauline from the Job Centre, Mickey the monkey boy and Barbara the sex change taxi driver. Then there's Hilary Briss the "special" butcher, useless vet Dr Chinnery and Edward and Tubbs, sinister proprietors of the "local" shop from where you'll never leave. This surreal world is, of course, the fictional creation of BBC2's The League of Gentlemen. But Royston Vasey does exist.

Its alter ego is the Peak District town of Hadfield, where three series of the dark comedy were filmed. Hadfield's main street appears strangely familiar, lined with "local" shops that could be straight out of the fictional town. There is the war memorial, the butcher's shop, the pub and the guest house which all featured in the show. You can also buy Pauline's Pens, Local Lighters, postcards and car stickers in some of the shops and there is even a Cafe Royston selling Tubbs' Toasted Teacakes! This stroll combines a walk up Hadfield's main street with an easy rural saunter along the Longdendale Valley. It follows a section of the old railway line towards Woodhead, offers views of the high Derbyshire hills and follows a reservoir path back into town. Royston Vasey may be slightly mad but Hadfield is surprisingly sedate... DISTANCE: 3 miles (allow one to two hours) START: The town war memorial at the top end of Hadfield's main street -- Station Road (OS Grid Ref. 023961). There is street parking along Station Road or at the train station which is opposite the war memorial.

Hadfield is situated just a mile north of Glossop and a mile east of the end of the M67 (from Manchester). By car, follow the A57 and turn off before Glossop is reached. PUBLIC TRANSPORT: train from Manchester Piccadilly to Hadfield. Begin at the war memorial which featured at the start of every episode of The League of Gentlemen, providing the aerial view down Royston Vasey high street. Facing the Palatine pub turn right along Plan Street which soon leads to a small car park on the left at the start of the Longdendale Trail. Enter this car park and follow the path up to the disused line which was once part of the Great Central Railway. The Trail is now a recreational route for walkers, cyclists and horse riders and forms part of the long-distance Trans-Pennine Trail from Liverpool to Hull. Follow the line straight ahead towards the overhead bridge and the view soon opens out towards the Longdendale reservoirs and the village of Tintwistle across the valley.

The old railway line is followed for about a mile and after you pass under a second high bridge you soon arrive at a four-fingered wooden signpost with a wooden gate on your left signed with a white arrow as a public bridleway. Leave the railway here and go through the gate on the left. The track drops down to another gate leading on to a tarmac lane. Go straight across the lane and continue downhill towards the reservoir along the route signed as "TPT West". A stony track is now followed which swings left and runs alongside the reservoir. When the bridge over the dam between the two reservoirs is reached do not cross it but continue straight ahead along the footpath signed for "Hadfield 1 mile". Keep to the wall side path with the reservoir to your right. Keep to this main track between a fence and the wall and ignore paths to your left and right including the one which leads through a kissing gate along the shoreline to your right. The main stony track soon heads uphill to a series of gates by some houses. Turn left through the gates and reach a road with the Victoria Inn opposite. Cross over and follow the residential road, Brosscroft, which faces you straight ahead with the pub on the corner.

Follow this road all the way down to a mini-roundabout by the New Lamp pub. Turn left at the roundabout along Station Road and walk up Hadfield's main shopping street. Along the way you pass many of the properties used in The League of Gentlemen. These include the Masons Arms pub and the butcher's shop on the right hand side and the betting shop and Gables Hotel on the left (which appeared as the exterior of Alvin and Sunny's Windermere Guest House). Keen fans may also spot other shops like the burger takeaway where Pauline worked and the properties transformed into the vet's surgery and the old ladies charity shop. At the top of the street you reach the War Memorial again. Even the public toilets on the opposite side of the road from here were used in filming! SCREEN SNIPPETS The League of Gentlemen was created by four university students -- Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith and Jeremy Dyson -- who won a Perrier Comedy Award in 1997. A Radio 4 series led to three TV series (to date) of the cult comedy in 1999, 2000 and 2002.

The town in the radio series was called "Spent" but the name of Royston Vasey was taken from comedian Roy Chubby Brown's real name and he appeared in the show as the town mayor. The mysterious local shop is not to be found in Hadfield, it was constructed on the nearby Pennine hills. The Peak District is often on screen. The stately homes of Lyme Hall and Sudbury Hall were used in the BBC's Pride and Prejudice and Haddon Hall near Bakewell was seen in Franco Zeffirelli's 1996 film version of Jane Eyre. The popular medical drama Peak Practice was set in the fictional village of Cardale but filmed largely in the villages of Crich and Fritchley on the eastern edge of the Peak District. Perhaps most famous of all, the Derwent and Ladybower Reservoirs were seen in the classic Richard Todd wartime movie The Dambusters.

The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse Reviews & Ratings - IMDb IMDb 17 January 2017 8:34 AM, PST NEWS 27 out of 35 people found the following review useful: one of the best TV series-movies 3 June 2005 There are two ways to turn a TV series into a film. The first, most common, and least successful, is to basically make a feature-length TV episode- see the disasters of the Steptoe & Son movie. The second is to do something else- something quite different, à la Monty Python. Thankfully, the creators of the cult TV series have gone for the second option, and they've come up with something unique, clever and funny- it couldn't feel less like a TV episode. Try to get your head around this- the writers, playing themselves, are confronted by their Royston Vasey alter-egos, played, of course, by them, and told to continue writing the series, otherwise apocalypse will befall the village. High-concept, contrived and easy to screw up? Yes, but somehow they managed to pull it off.

Not for every taste, perhaps, and the ending does drag, but fans will be delighted, and it might even win over the uninitiated. Was the above review useful to you? 19 out of 22 people found the following review useful: There's a lot to like about the Apocalypse from United Kingdom 8 June 2005 For many the hit series was ten years of pitch black humour loaded with affectionate parodies of classic films and a hilarious assortment of over a hundred characters with instantly recognisable catchphrases. Few shows have survived transition from radio to TV to stage show to film but The League of Gentlemen have achieved it with suitable aplomb. The talented writer/performers had initially envisioned a Monty Python style medieval adventure, but as soon as writing began they soon realised that the characters they have lived with had become very real and deserved better. With that, the Royston Vasey folk realise their very existence is under threat as the writers decide to disregard the fictitious town and work on a 17th Century romp instead.

With the exception of Michael Sheen playing much unseen League member Jeremy Dyson, The League play pretty unlikeable caricatures of their real life personae as well as the familiar faces of Tubbs ("I made a little brown fishy"), nightmare inducing sexual predator Herr Lipp, butcher Hilary Briss and an unlikely hero - irate businessman Geoff Tibbs. New faces appear when the third reality appears, it's here we are treated to charming and funny cameos from veteran actors and popular TV stars. For many this will be a really enjoyable 90 minutes. 'Apocalpse is not going to please everyone though. Working on this level of post modernism has been done a few times before now and may seem all too familiar to audiences raised on irony drenched teen successes kick-started by the likes of Wes Craven having a New Nightmare. It also takes a lot of confidence in an audience to keep up with a high concept story so there are moments of exposition and dialogue that serve only to confirm what most in the audience already know. Comedy as a genre is formulaic but it's now unheard of for a British film not to fall back on the huge back catalogue of TV stars to fill short amounts of screen time.

It's also hard to believe the creators ever wanted their offspring killed off, which is perhaps why some of the role reversal doesn't always quite hit the mark. Would Hilary Briss have wanted to try save Royston Vasey in the series? However, while the show's deliciously dark vein has almost all but disappeared but is arguably more accessible for it. Much will be said about the character development and efforts to humanise the likes of previously one joke incarnations like Herr Lipp. It is here an impossible level of depth can be found along with a harsh streak of biting satire and throwaway put downs. Sentiment is there with a lump in the throat but not sugar coated thickly enough to intrude on the action. The music is good, performances exemplary and the animation is wonderfully seamless; a nice throwback to Terry Gilliam and Ray Harryhausen's work. In short, there's a lot to like about the Apocalypse. Like so many TV to film transfers it was never going to be easy finding the line between preaching to the converted and introducing the uninitiated to the League's slick and distinct voice.

But no matter what your preference is, this last trip to the town which 'You'll Never Leave' is oddly lined with hope and ultimately very, very touching. Was the above review useful to you? 24 out of 32 people found the following review useful: Odd - but what did you expect? from United Kingdom 4 June 2005 The film was apparently spawned from an idea one of the writers had when he 'saw' one of his creations in a supermarket. The inhabitants of Royston Vasey head into 'our' world to persuade the writers not to stop writing about them and thus destroy their world. If that sounds a bit too serious, don't be put off. Within the first few minutes we get: Bernice (the vile female vicar) letting rip at an unfortunate penitent during confession; Chinnery (the vet who inadvertently destroys every animal he touches) attempting to collect semen from a giraffe; Mickey (thick beyond belief) being, ah, thick; and Tubbs (inbred sister-wife and local shopkeeper) being sweet as ever - but still disgusting.

Some of the regular characters are missing, but a new idea by the Gents introduces some 16th-Century characters - and we have the Gents themselves in the action too. If you're new to The League of Gentlemen, this is an easy introduction and a lot of fun. If you're a long-standing fan, this has everything you've come to expect - including the joys of Jeremy Dyson spotting. All told, it's got the same faintly surreal humour that's the hallmark of the series, plus some moments of quite touching 'introspection'. Herr Lipp, for example, maintains a gentle dignity on learning that he's regarded by his creators as a 'one-joke character'. While most of the characters stay as they are, some develop in unexpected ways that are perfectly natural when they happen. This film is a 'swan song' for Royston Vasey, but it's also a showcase for the Gents who prove that (gasp!) they can write other stuff - and it can be very funny. (But you knew that anyway.) Was the above review useful to you?

30 out of 46 people found the following review useful: Apocalypse definitely not the end of the world from Manchester, UK 26 May 2005 Just saw 'The League of Gentlemen: Apocalypse' at a special screening in Manchester, with Mark Gatiss and Reece Shearsmith of the League in attendance. At the back was Peter Kay (who has a brief cameo in the film) affectionately heckling at the back during the Q & A session after the film. The film was complicated (in a good way) and very very funny. It follows Geoff Tipps, Hilary Briss and Herr Lipp as they try and save fictional Rosyton Vasey from the disinterest of their creators. The League play a wide range of their characters and themselves (or character based on themselves) and are ably supported by the cream of British character and comedy actors such as Bernard Hill, Victoria Wood and David Warner. Warner is a particular stand out reminding me of his smooth and cutting turn in 'Time Bandits'. The film swims in and out of various realities and allows some of the denizen's of Rosyton Vasey some space to grow beyond their usual limits of their comedy shtick.

Steve Pemberton's Herr Lipp has a great Bretchian moment near the end of the movie and has to make a decision about his purpose and meaning in life which brings a lump to the throat at an unexpected moment and surprises you with its tender affection for the characters. This echoes something Mark and Reece said in the Q & A afterwards, that the plot of the league being tired of their famous characters is spurious and that the whole film is really a love letter to them. For a format that started as a radio character-based sketch show, these guys have really evolved the idea so far as to sustain a movie which takes you on a journey through fiction, 'reality', comedy, tragedy and a pleasing journey for two of the less obvious characters to carry a long form story from their 70 odd existing creations. The fans of the show will love it. It pays off dedication and attention to detail in spades, the uninitiated may be a little lost, but the joy of the LoG was always the ability to almost instantly tune into their acutely observed characters and take the stylistic leap into farce and expressionistic movie homage.

There are homages a plenty in this one including 'The Shining' and 'La Belle et la Bete', to name but two I spotted and they ably demonstrate their love for cinema and history with a segment in 1690's England that makes perfect sense when you're engaged with the movie. What can I say, I marvelled, boggled, emoted and snickered throughout and they have definitely pulled off what many have failed at. A successful British TV comedy to cinema translation. If you've watched and enjoyed 'The League of Gentlemen' in the past, go see it; you will enjoy. If you haven't, rent/buy a DVD and then go see it. Well done guys and thanks for the charming and humorous Q & A. Was the above review useful to you? 15 out of 19 people found the following review useful: Hello Dave from Amsterdam 7 June 2005 After three outstanding BBC television series' and a Christmas special, the bizarre and grotesque (yet perversely lovable) characters of bleak fictional town Royston Vasey make the jump to celluloid, along with their creators - The League of Gentlemen.

Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith are the more familiar three-quarters of the foursome, with the central roles shared between the trio. In an added twist, the final member of the team - Jeremy Dyson - is portrayed by actor Michael Sheen. Where to start? Dyson (Sheen) is in conversation with his writing cohorts, when - horror of horrors - he is paid a visit by two of his grisliest characters. Both Tubbs (Pemberton) and Edward Tattsyrup (Shearsmith) are unhappy at The League's decision to kill off the Vasey inhabitants. "You're not real!" screams Dyson in vain, as the local shopkeepers from hell exact their revenge. Mayhem ensues, as reality and Vasey converge with the vast array of characters entering our world to save theirs. Confused? You will be, as the camp, innuendo-ridden Teutonic, Herr Lipp (Pemberton) is forced to take on the daily guise of Pemberton (Pemberton), while Pemberton (Pemberton) is kidnapped by cannibalistic butcher Hillary Briss (Gatiss) and Geoff Tipps (Shearsmith).

With shades of an even more demented Misery, Briss attempts to force Pemberton to rewrite the film - thus continuing his life - but leaving Geoff in charge is never a good idea. The erstwhile comedian becomes embroiled in The League's latest, post-Vasey adventure - The King's Evil - entering a typically twisted 17th century England, complete with cameos from Victoria Wood, Peter Kay and David Warner. Known as George of Asda (due to his select line of clothing), Geoff saves the day and is treated as a hero, but for the denouement of the film, he joins characters old and new at the Church of Royston Vasey to meet with their makers. For fans of the series, the film is a must-see. And yes, it does feature Papa Lazarou (albeit a little too fleetingly). Pen-loving Pauline, Mickey, Barbara and cursed vet Matthew Chinnery are some of the other favourites on show, and The League's portrayal of themselves (plus Sheen's as Dyson) is also a fascinating insight.

The League of Gentlemen are the Radiohead of British comedy - they are ambitious, groundbreaking (witness the excellent Series Three) and not happy to rest on their laurels. They also divide opinion accordingly. Certainly, their macabre sense of humour is not for every palate, and while not written exclusively for 'fans', a grasp of the storyline would benefit those who have previously viewed the series. Nevertheless, Apocalypse is a film in its own right and The League will no doubt manage to attract a new breed of fan, as well as appeasing and pleasing existing ones. Was the above review useful to you? 16 out of 22 people found the following review useful: In a League of it's own! from United Kingdom 30 May 2005 I have to admit that when I first heard about the Apocalypse film it was a worry. I mean, they have a lot to live up to, don't they? When they first did a stage show they won the Perrier award and when they did radio they won a Sony award. When they ventured onto our telly's they won a Bafta award, a Royal Television Society Award and the Golden Rose of Montreux.

When the first series aired in January 1999 it was mind-blowing! A real breath of fresh air in British Comedy, and when the second series aired a year later it built on that foundation and sealed the shows cult status around the world, our web stats show that we have received visitors from every single country on the planet! The 'Local show for Local People' showcased the Gents talent for live performance and opened doors for the gents to do more live performing such as 'Art' in the west end. The fans favourite has always been the Christmas Special, less of a sketch show and more a tribute to classic horror films yet still wrapped up in the delicious League style. And then of course there was the 'difficult' third series, still a hit with the loyal hardcore fans of course, but maybe a little bit ahead of its time for a mainstream TV audience. As I say, a lot to live up to. So now we have the film and...Well a film is different isn't it? It will be seen by much larger numbers than the radio or TV shows and with the third series in mind I was worried.

Well as you know I was lucky enough to get to see the film yesterday at a press screening in London and all my doubts were blown away (literally) in the first few minutes! I am not going to give plot lines away as some reviewers have done, nor am I going to tell you the catch phrases (although there is really only one) but I will try to tell you what they have managed to achieve with this film! Leaving the cinema on Monday night I could only imagine writing 'Oh my god, it's brilliant, its amazing, its the best thing they have ever done, better than the first, second and specials all rolled into one!' Of course I owe my visitors a much better explanation than that! So, why is it brilliant? This is a film for everyone, the casual fan, the obsessive fan the occasional fan and even for someone who is sat in the wrong cinema! You don't have to have watched the series to enjoy this film; it works on so many levels. This film reminded me why I am a League of Gentlemen Fan! You can tell that filming was a true labour of love too; the attention to detail is incredible.

The sets for the TV show were always detailed but I am going to have to watch the film again just to look at the background! The story moves at a swift pace, the action carrying us from Royston Vasey to the real world where we meet the 'Creators' who are of course the League themselves! Along the way we manage to bump into favourite characters from the show but always within the central story unlike the TV sketch show. I was glad that the film was dark in places, a little scary and a little strange...only fitting for The League of Gentlemen. The Gents also managed to get their revenge on the BBC censors, not as much slipping in the word 'Mongoloid' as screaming it from the roof tops! Some may think the Gents portrayal of themselves a little indulgent but that's the joke and with that comes my only worry, the in jokes I mention below may puzzle some viewers and they might come over a little too clever...but I shouldn't worry, there is always a poo joke waiting just around the corner and speaking of jokes, they come thick and fast, and in a mixture of clever references, wig jokes, bum jokes, visual jokes and cock gags!

I haven't laughed out loud in a cinema since...well, I can't remember! The fans that have been 'with' the League since the beginning are rewarded with loads of 'in' jokes, some that work on two levels, a mainstream audience may laugh at a reference to a compact disc for one reason whilst fans of the Local show will laugh for another reason altogether! The cameos are genius! Peter Kay and Simon Pegg form the strangest double act you have ever seen, Simon getting one of the films biggest laughs just by making a noise! I was a little worried about the 1690's aspect of the film when I first heard about it but as a story within a story I was just getting into it when...but that would be telling! All I need to say is that it fits wonderfully and adds to the overall feel of the film!

I am not a professional reviewer of films, so I am finding it difficult to put into words how much I enjoyed this film but for now I will just say that if the supposed benchmark for British Comedy films in recent years was the excellent 'Shaun of the Dead' then I am sorry but a new benchmark has just been set by the inventive, hilarious and sometimes a little scary...The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse. Jason Kenny 2005 from Ireland 7 June 2005 This movie was the result of the fantastically darkly comic BBC TV series! It's a huge pity that this movie spin-off is let down by a poor script and by production values which are below what the TV series offered. It might have been better to take this idea and implement the best parts of it as the end of another TV series but this may not have been an option for the writers. The plot is basically two stories badly tacked together. There are some comic moments but not enough to make it necessary viewing. The audience I saw it with certainly didn't crack up laughing. As it stands it's a pretty disappointing big screen farewell to the excellent characters that have provided so many laughs on the small screen!

Such a pity, I really wanted to be able to say something more positive! Was the above review useful to you? 13 out of 22 people found the following review useful: Special Stuff from United Kingdom 4 June 2005 The best British Comedy Film ever! For years English comedy television programs have turned into films and have flopped, 'Are You Being Served?' 'Dads Army', the list goes on. However the popular dark humoured BBC television show; 'The League of Gentlemen' has managed to not only create a film which has managed to not be a flop but has also managed to be the best British Comedy Film ever! With its dark and horrific twists and turns The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse is British Talent at its best! Its intriguing demonic storyline written by the League of Gentlemen (Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith and Jeremy Dyson) matches with the Gents (and guest cameos) superb acting! This I hope is not the end of Royston Vasey, not after this great success anyway! Don't think that if you have not seen The League of Gentlemen on the telly that you will not understand whats going on.

Its all well explained and by the end of the film you will be happy with the result but you are still left hungry for more... Mmmm, Special Stuff. Was the above review useful to you? 7 out of 11 people found the following review useful: THE WORST film I have seen in years 8 June 2005 *** This review may contain spoilers *** Don't get me wrong, I love the TV series of League Of Gentlemen. It was funny, twisted and completely inspired. I was looking forward to the movie, the premise was interesting and I looked forward to see what they had done with the characters and where the bizarre storyline would take them. It was a total disappointment, for starters the three weakest characters in the series were the leads and it only contained bit parts for the other characters (why not pick mickey & Pauline, papa Lazaro or tubs and Edward for the main parts!?). It was unfunny throughout, half baked gags and poor slapstick humour. The real clincher was the plain ridiculous period drama / comedy (and i will use the word comedy loosely). It distracted from the main storyline and felt awkward, not to mention painfully unfunny.

The direction of the movie is appalling, and often feels that the lines were delivered by the characters within one take. Very rushed. Then - the three headed Plasticine-esquire monster. What the hell was all that about? plain ridiculous, it felt like the League of gentlemen tagged it on at the end. All in all I found myself looking at my watch and sighing with disappointment throughout my experience of the film. What was once an amazing Television series has been tainted by a terribly unfunny film. If i could give it 0 out of 10 i would. Do not waste your money seeing this. Was the above review useful to you? 10 out of 17 people found the following review useful: Thank God for Herr Lipp.... from United Kingdom, Brighton 3 June 2005 Being a massive fan of the TV series (even to the extent of visiting Hadfield where its filmed!) I was waiting for this to come out from the second I heard about it. Perhaps my expectations were to high, but literally 30 mins into the film and I was thinking 'what have they done?'.

Some of the best characters such as Tubbs n' Edward, Pauline n' Mickey n' the bizarre Papa Lazarou had about 10 minutes screen time between them, instead a lot of the film is taken up with the real life creators (aka the league of gentlemen) and some rather poor characters from their new 17th century story. I think what made the TV series so great was all the characters of Royston Vasey, this however did not feature that many in any great detail, and wasn't even really filmed in Royston Vasey for the most part. The whole cinema sat in mostly silence throughout the film, the only highlights in my opinion were the usual sexual innuendos from Herr Lipp (the best being his one involving two scouts at the start and their 'purple skins'!). Was the above review useful to you? Page 1 of 7:

Question: Hadfield near Glossop became the fictional town of Royston Vasey in which TV series?
Answer: League of Gentlemen