The BBC Announces ‘The League of Gentlemen’ Will Return To Royston Vasey With Three New Episodes

If you’ve ever caught yourself wondering what the residents of Royston Vasey in The League of Gentlemen would think about Brexit or the election of Donald Trump, you may be about to find out as the BBC have just announced the return of Mark Gatiss, Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton, and Jeremy Dyson for three new episodes of The League of Gentlemen to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their very first radio show.

Mark Gatiss first teased fans back in April on his Twitter account when he suggested that there was going to be an anniversary special of the show, although no other details were forthcoming about this until the BBC announced three new episodes of the show would be airing in the future on BBC Two.

Patrick Holland, the Controller of BBC Two, spoke about the exciting return of The League of Gentlemen at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, according to ShortList.

“It is hugely exciting to be guiding the channel as it evolves to be ever more timely, challenging and mischievous. I’m pleased to be announcing today a number of brilliant new titles for the channel, from an ambitious new history series telling the story of the 20th century to the much anticipated return of The League Of Gentlemen.”

Hokey cokey pig in a pokey, it’s confirmedl! #TheLeagueOfGentlemen will return to @BBCTwo: https://t.co/RPz220xT9v pic.twitter.com/0xSDfu9lJd

— BBC Press Office (@bbcpress) August 23, 2017

The League of Gentlemen series officially ended in 2002 and won a BAFTA for Best Comedy Series in 2002, as well as a Rose D’Or at the international awards festival. Pemberton, Shearsmith, Dyson, and Gatiss returned after the series for The League of Gentlemen’s Apocalypse film in 2005, as well as their stage show, The League of Gentlemen Are Behind You! the same year, as the Metro report.

It is quite impossible to call this deeply original, perverse, gallows humor series simply comedy, as Jeremy Dyson once remarked when he spoke to The Guardian about the ideas that the creators deemed funny.

“Sketches about a grief-stricken cave guide haunted by a tragic accident on a school trip, or about a German homosexual exchange teacher are not the stuff of Russ Abbott’s Madhouse.”

Royston Vasey’s portrayal of small-town England with “a local shop for local people” has its inspirational origins in Rottingdean, a town where The League of Gentlemen creators once visited a shop to scout for fossils. In this seaside town, they found one shopkeeper so upset by their very presence that they began toying with imaginary scenarios immediately after their visit.

“I collect fossils, so we went into this shop looking for trilobites. It was full of snowstorms and seaside junk, and the woman behind the counter was really defensive. She never said anything, but she looked at us as though one of us was going to steal something. After we left, we joked about her saying something like ‘I have a husband upstairs’ or ‘I have guns’ to scare us.”

Announcement for Local People: The League of Gentlemen is coming back to @BBCTwo…????
https://t.co/EfVvnORGjY pic.twitter.com/kwvoL7eER7

— BBC Two (@BBCTwo) August 23, 2017

While there is no definitive date set for the return of The League of Gentlemen, rumors are that it will air on BBC Two sometime in Autumn 2017.

[Featured Image by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images]