The Comedy Vault – The League Of Gentlemen’s Apocalypse.

The League Of Gentlemen’s Apocalypse (2005)

The League Of Gentlemen are the comedy group that have had a lot of success. They had a series on the radio (that I plan to review soon), and they have also done several tours, and they went on to have a TV series that did well and launched several catchphrases. So it seemed that the next logical step was to feature their variety of characters in a film, which would have a horror twist.

Royston Vasey had become known as the village that featured some rather unusual people, who are all played by the cast, and the chance to see the likes of Tubbs and Mr Chinnery on the big screen was too good an opportunity to miss. The film begins with the only non-performing member of the team running into some rather nasty trouble, and this is a sign of things to come.

Fears are beginning to grow at the village, because it has been written that something rather horrible is about to happen. Can these people put their differences aside and survive? The film began to go off in a rather odd “the characters realise that they are in a film” direction, with the writers planning to end the project, meaning that they would cease to exist.

This means that they will have to leave their village and track them down, so first they have to deal with entering the city, hoping to encounter the writers and make them change their mind. They haven’t time to see the sights though, they must act quickly. Then Herr Lipp gets mixed up with Steve Pemberton who plays that character, which leads to all sorts of confusion. They then find the project that they are working on and make some changes to the script.

This is set in 17th century Britain, and we see some of this played out, making this almost two films in one. This leads to the big showdown, and if a few heads have to explode to persuade the writers that they should continue, along with a big green thing haunting everyone, then that’s the price they’ll have to pay. There is also a guest appearance from Simon Pegg that is even shorter than in The Parole Officer.

The League Of Gentlemen’s Apocalypse did very well with critics, with one even admitting it made them laugh until they did a wee. “Precious Things” (as they are called) include a making of, outtakes, and a gallery. and a soundtrack was released too. And despite of all this, many years later, they did finally reunite to make some more TV episodes, and shout “this is a local shop!” at everyone just one final time.