Steve Pemberton on why the The League of Gentlemen is back for three specials
He says they owe everything to the series
When discussing the legacy of The League Of Gentlemen – the macabre comedy based in the fictional northern town of Royston Vasey – its star Steve Pemberton doesn’t mince his words.
“We all owe everything to it,” he says, referring to his co-stars Reece Shearsmith and Mark Gatiss and co-writer Jeremy Dyson.
“It’s the first thing we all did. But this isn’t us trying to relaunch it. These are three half-
hour specials that are dear to us and hopefully special for the audience.”
Last seen 12 years ago, it made cult favourites of bizarre characters like Tubbs and Edward who ran “a local shop for local people”, toad-loving puritans The Dentons, and Legz Akimbo, the amateur theatre company fearlessly tackling near-the-knuckle subjects for young audiences.
“The first thing Reece and I wrote when we all sat down again was Legz Akimbo,” says Steve, 50, “and it was a joy.
"We filmed it in a school with a group of 60 kids who didn’t know the characters. We bounded out and Mark started doing a rap about stranger danger.
"I was standing in the wings watching him and I just had this big smile on my face, thinking: ‘I can’t believe we’re back here doing this.’”
There have been some changes – Steve is pleased that when playing the shopkeeper and part-time serial killer Tubbs, he no longer has to suffer inside the uncomfy fat suit he used to wear.
“Those things are much easier to do now,” he says. “Tubbs’ original body suit was incinerated years ago.
"I remember taking it off after the final day of the film and kicking it around saying: ‘I do not ever want to get in that again.’ It had mushrooms growing in it!”
The League of Gentlemen, Mon to Weds 10pm BBC2
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