‘They put me in a box with me coat on…’
League of Gents is something that has been with me as long as I can remember. I loved it intensely and immediately upon release at the tail end of the 90s. It was one of the many British comedies that my Dad and I both loved and quoted endlessly and it stayed with me through my teenage years and into adulthood. Indeed, it was one of the first shows my wife and I watched together (not that she can remember any of it which is what necessitated this re-watch…). I saw The League of Gentlemen’s Apocalypse during it’s original theatrical run in 2005. In short, this is a franchise that I utterly adore, and while the film has its flaws (which we’ll get to later), it’s still an important part of a wonderful fictional universe.
When the twisted characters of Royston Vasey get wind that they are being ‘killed off’, they find a portal into the real world in which they accost messrs Dyson, Gatiss, Pemberton and Shearsmith in an attempt to save themselves.
So we have an ambitious is fairly simple concept. What would happen if the inhabitants of one of the most ghoulish fictional towns in history invaded the real world? As an elevator pitch, it’s a solid one. And it mostly works. The plot revolves primarily around Hilary Briss, Herr Lipp and Geoff, and while the character development experienced by the Queen of Duisburg is cathartic, it still doesn’t really justify that character’s inclusion over more established and beloved characters like Charlie & Stella, Ollie Plimsols or Papa Lazarou (who thankfully does at least make a brief and distressing appearance at the start of the film).
Plotting aside, the cast have a lot of fun in allowing characters that don’t really interact in the original run to play off each other and explore the gruesome possibilities this brings. Geoff and Hilary make for a particularly compelling duo, and none of it comes at the expense of the essence of the characters. It still feels quintessentially them. Even the story within a story works, with David Warner excelling as the evil Dr. Erasmus Pea alongside a particularly grotesque incarnation of Pemberton and Gatiss having a ball in 17th century wigs with matching cankers.
While there is a lot to be enjoyed in the gloriously over-the-top ending, it does feel a little convoluted and messy at times, but this can be forgiven when this lack of coherence comes simply from overambition rather than a failing in any other respect. In the end, and perhaps quite fittingly, Royston Vasey is just too damn weird to fit neatly within a 92 minute running time, so in some respects, the outlandish ending is perfect.
I returned to Apocalypse in the middle of my 10th or 11th re-watch of the whole franchise and I loved it just as much this time round as I did last time. And in two or three years I’ll do it all again and fall in love all over again.
Royston Vasey. I’ll never leave.