Written by Jeremy Dyson And Mark Gatiss And Steve Pemberton And Reece Shearsmith
Directed by Steve Bendelack
Bernice: "The League of Gentlemen! Extraordinary!"
After blitzing through the first three series in a week, it was time to see the antics of Royston Vasey on the big screen, lol. Yes, this show was popular enough at the time that a movie was the logical step to go.
Given the bizarre nature of the show itself, of course the movie would also have to take a similarly wild turn of events. What would happen if the real world and the fictional world of Royston Vasey clashed? Or more specifically if the writers just gave up on their grotesque creations?
We opened with poor Jeremy Dyson (Michael Sheen) being terrorised by Edward (Reece Shearsmith) and Tubbs (Steve Pemberton) before getting scared off a cliff by a more milder Papa Lazarou (Shearsmith). Yup, these three have entered the real world on a mission and they're not the only ones.
With a prophecy of impending destruction for Royston Vasey, Reverend Bernice (Shearsmith), Pauline (Pemberton) and Chinnery (Mark Gatiss) are willing to enter the portal to avert the apocalypse. However it's Geoff (Shearsmith), Her Lipp (Pemberton) and Hilary Briss (Gatiss) that get in their first and they're even more determined to save themselves.
There's kidnapping Steve Pemberton himself with Her Lipp impersonating the former to his family while Geoff found himself wanting to be the hero in The League's new project, The King's Evil. There's fun to be had with this plot as the main characters in that horror historical all had to make sacrifices to Dr Erasmus Pea (David Warner). They're also turned into a gnarly looking three headed demon for good measure.
The third act then had the most fun with Pemberton, Shearsmith and Gatiss all getting killed off in comically gruesome ways while the likes of Geoff, Chinnery, Herr Lipp and company all had to make a stand against Pea and save their very existence. There's a happy ending of sorts with free will bring afforded to these characters and the lines between reality and meta eventually concluded.
- Jeremy Dyson did survive and everyone got tails as a result. It was something he had mentioned at the start of the movie.
- Unexpected couple alert with Reverend Bernice and Pauline. I wish we had seen more of them tbh.
- There's some nice roles for Victoria Wood, Liam Cunningham, Simon Pegg and Peter Kay in this movie.
- Chronology: An unspecified time since the events of the Series 3 finale.
The League Of Gentlemen's Apocalypse certainly had a lot of fun with the meta and while some characters were evidently neutered for the big screen (Papa Lazarou and Herr Lipp), overall this was a fun outing for this world. I had a good time with this one.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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