Editing The League of Gentlemen (section)

==History==
Three of the four members of the League of Gentlemen (Steve Pemberton, Mark Gatiss and Reece Shearsmith) met at [[Bretton Hall College of Education]]. They met their final member – Jeremy Dyson – later in their comedy career. He does not act as such in the franchise but does have a few small cameo roles throughout the series. The stage show began in late 1994, and it was not long before the team took as their name the title of a 1960 [[Jack Hawkins]] film, ''[[The League of Gentlemen (film)|The League of Gentlemen]]''. In 1997, they were awarded the [[Perrier Comedy Award|Perrier award]] for comedy at the [[Edinburgh Festival Fringe]] and their [[Radio programming|radio series]] ''On the Town with the League of Gentlemen'', debuted on [[BBC Radio 4]]. ''On the Town'' was set in the fictional town of Spent. They won a [[Sony Radio Academy Awards|Sony Award]] for this six-episode run. In 1999 the show moved to [[television]] and quickly acquired a [[cult following]]; three series were produced, the first airing in 1999, the second in 2000 and the third in 2002. A Christmas special was broadcast in December 2000, after the airing of the second series. For television, Spent was renamed Royston Vasey – the real name of comedian [[Roy Chubby Brown]], who appears in the series, notably as the Mayor of Royston Vasey in series 2. Its influence can be seen on later series, particularly ''[[Little Britain (TV series)|Little Britain]]'' (the first series of which was directed by [[Steve Bendelack]] and script-edited by Gatiss).

Filming took place mainly on location in the north [[Derbyshire]] town of [[Hadfield, Derbyshire|Hadfield]] and consequently had no live audience.<ref name=bbc-comedymap /> A [[laugh track]] was added to the first and second series, by inviting a studio audience to watch a playback of the completed episodes as well as the filming of certain interior scenes, such as the Dentons'. The laughter track was dropped from the Christmas Special and series 3 when shown in the United Kingdom.

The group took the show on tour for the first time in 2001, using a mixture of old and new material. In early 2005 a special one-off sketch was broadcast on the BBC for [[Comic Aid]], a charity benefit for the [[2004 Indian Ocean earthquake|tsunami disaster]]. In this, two of the most popular characters, Tubbs and [[Papa Lazarou]], kidnapped [[Miranda Richardson]]. A feature-length film, ''[[The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse]]'', was released on 3 June 2005. Later in the same year, the League toured the UK with their new pantomime-themed show, ''[[The League of Gentlemen Are Behind You!]]'', which ran from October to mid-December.

In September 2006, the unofficial website reported that The League of Gentlemen were to 'reunite' at the beginning of 2007, most likely to plan for the fourth series.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.leagueofgentlemen.co.uk/newlatest.shtml |title=Latest News about The League of Gentlemen |first=Jason |last=Kenny |website=The League of Gentlemen Web site |access-date=2009-03-16}}</ref> Shearsmith and Pemberton appeared on ''[[The Russell Brand Show (TV series)|The Russell Brand Show]]'' on 22 December 2006. When asked "Will there be any more of ''The League of Gentlemen''?", Shearsmith simply replied "Yes" but was quick to change the subject and not reveal anything about a new series. On the official website, Shearsmith's [[blog]] entry for 23 May 2007 stated that the troupe had recently met up in London's [[West End of London|West End]]: "We discussed our next project – it seems we have hit upon something. Early days – but exciting nevertheless."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.thisisalocalshop.com/blogs/entryview.php?Submit=View&Id=21 |title=Blog &#124; This Is A Local Shop – The Official League of Gentlemen Web site |publisher=This Is A Local Shop |access-date=2009-03-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071219101054/https://www.thisisalocalshop.com/blogs/entryview.php?Submit=View&Id=21 |archive-date=19 December 2007}}</ref>

Shearsmith and Pemberton later collaborated to create another dark comedy series, ''[[Psychoville]]'' (2009); Gatiss appeared in one episode. In May 2008, Shearsmith confirmed that although he and Pemberton would be making ''[[Psychoville]]'' without the other members of the League, the League would reunite in the future. The three also performed together in the fourth series of ''[[Horrible Histories (2009 TV series)|Horrible Histories]]'', in which they play American film producers who hear [[Pitch (filmmaking)|film pitches]] from historical figures.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2012-04-09/why-did-the-league-of-gentlemen-choose-to-reform-on-horrible-histories |title=Why did the League of Gentlemen choose to reform on Horrible Histories? |work=[[Radio Times]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120410073926/http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2012-04-09/why-did-the-league-of-gentlemen-choose-to-reform-on-horrible-histories |archive-date=2012-04-10}}</ref> Shearsmith and Pemberton also wrote and starred in the black comedy [[anthology series]] ''[[Inside No. 9]]'', which premiered on BBC Two in 2014. Gatiss appeared in two episodes, in 2022 and 2024.

A one-off radio show, ''The League of Gentlemen's Ghost Chase'', was broadcast on 28 October 2010 for Halloween.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00vhfjn/The_League_of_Gentlemens_Ghost_Chase/ |title=BBC Radio 4 – The League of Gentlemen's Ghost Chase |publisher=BBC}}</ref> Unlike other shows, this was not a scripted dark comedy but a documentary of the members spending a night at the [[Ancient Ram Inn]], reputedly the most haunted hotel in the country.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.theancientraminn.com/hauntings.html |title=The Ancient Ram Inn |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080828122906/http://www.theancientraminn.com/hauntings.html |archive-date=2008-08-28}}</ref>

Speaking to [[BBC Radio 6 Music|BBC Radio 6]] in October 2016, Mark Gatiss spoke about the desire of the creators to revive the programme in some form with Brexit forming a suitable background to revive it.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/oct/12/league-of-gentlemen-mark-gatiss-return-tv-bbc|title=Mark Gatiss: League of Gentlemen star hints at 'Brexity' return to TV|last=Jackson|first=Jasper|date=2016-10-13|newspaper=The Guardian|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077|access-date=2017-01-13}}</ref>

In April 2017, both Gatiss and Shearsmith confirmed that the programme would be returning for an anniversary special.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.shortlist.com/entertainment/tv/the-league-of-gentlemen-is-making-a-tv-comeback|title=The League of Gentlemen is making a TV comeback|date=24 April 2017 }}</ref> The BBC announced in August 2017 that three special new episodes were to be produced, to be aired in December 2017.<ref name="auto"/>