10 Best League Of Gentlemen Characters

10. Charlie & Stella

Married couples on television can be a hard thing to get right, especially if the actors aren't up to snuff and the dialogue isn't real. But with Steve Pemberton and Reese Shearsmith - their ability to portray a very distinctive kind of marriage is what makes this character duo so unique.

The bickering couple that is Charlie and Stella could be their own sitcom, but it was their spiteful hostility towards one another that fitted it into the League Of Gentlement universe so well. Often keeping up appearances, the couple's passive-aggressive taunts to one another spilled out into full-blown snarling arguments.

But, whether it's a waiter revealing his country of origin, a baby's wail after being shaken, or the reveal that Julie (Charlie and Stella's daughter) has a boyfriend who slept with Stella, something snapped in the couple and they returedn to normal pleasantries, capping off the joke of the scene.

Pemberton is a master of voices and he nailed the put-upon working class husband, but it's Shearsmith who shined in the sketches as he encapsulated a very specific type of person you find in your local pub. A cigarette at the ready and a permanent scowl, it's almost like Shearsmith was born to play the role.