The League Of Gentlemen: All Their Other Shows Ranked From Worst To Best

Psychoville is the name by which The League Of Gentlemen was retitled when aired in Japan and Pemberton and Shearsmith's psychological horror sitcom serial of that title, more than any other post-League project, feels like a spiritual successor to the show that made their name.

The duo's own characters - Shearsmith as an embittered and inept one-handed clown, Pemberton as a blind millionaire fixated on collecting soft toys - could easily come straight out of Royston Vasey. There is a similar mix of the comic, surreal, and darkly disturbing about the other leads too, especially Dawn French as a midwife who deals with her son's cot death by treating a practice doll as a real child.

The first season of Psychoville was expertly crafted, beginning as something more akin to the early League Of Gentlemen with a succession of sketches about these oddball characters, before developing into an interconnected blackmail plot that gradually brought them together. A standout episode played out entirely as a pastiche of Hitchcock's single-take murder mystery Rope featuring just Pemberton's serial killer-obssessed man child, Shearsmith as his enabling mother and Gatiss as a police officer who turns out to be a wannabe actor.

Unfortunately, after a superb first season, Psychoville struggled to maintain its quality in intermingling creatively strange characters and a strong central mystery. A portmanteau horror-style Halloween special tried and failed to recapture the magic of The League Of Gentlemen's Christmas special and the second season, while introducing some strong elements such as Shearsmith's unhinged librarian, felt far too purposeless and meandering.