8. The League Of Gentlemen (1999)
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The League Of Gentlemen, possibly a collection of the most sickening, frightening and funny characters ever committed to screen. The events of the 'local' Yorkshire town of Royston Vasey were the focus of three series and a movie (The League Of Gentlemen's Apocalypse) and it was dark and hilarious in equal measure...at least for the first two series. The show went a bit off the rails with the third and the film may have been a step to far but there was a number of great characters even then. It's all down to the three leads / writers; Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton and Mark Gatiss. Between them they were able to create a vividly surreal world, scripting and portraying a variety of roles to make a show where you eagerly tuned in each week to find out what insanity our favourite characters would conjure up next. And what a bunch of characters they were. Let's start with Pauline. A tyrant of the job centre, with only pens for friends, she was a brutal woman who beat anyone who questioned her. Hilary Briss is a fiendish 'Sweeny Todd' character with his special recipe sausages. Then we have transexual gruff northerner and taxi driver Barbara and creepy teacher Herr Lipp, who pays too much attention to his young male students. And of course there's the devilish Papa Lazarou, a frightening circus ringmaster who comes knocking on women's doors, calls you Dave, sells you pegs and steals you away. It all sounds a little sick and twisted and it is, but it teeters enough into fantasy so as to remain funny and entertaining. The most extreme example, and my favourite set of characters in the whole show are Edward and Tubbs, an inbred, xenophobic couple who run the local shop and are fiercely paranoid of 'strangers'. If you're not local, you had better not venture near their shop. You'll never leave! Check out this sketch from the second episode, possibly the best moment in the entire show!