BBC confirms League of Gentlemen will return to television this year
Three specials will mark 20 years since the show debuted
The BBC has confirmed that The League of Gentlemen will return with three specials to mark 20 years since the show's radio debut.
The new shows will air later this year on BBC 2 and will reunite Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith and Jeremy Dyson as the residents of fictional town Royston Vasey.
The comedians had already stated their intention of marking the anniversary, with Steve Pemberton telling RadioTimes.com in February this year: “It will be a very difficult thing to do, to go back and try and imagine what Royston Vasey will be like now, or whether it’s changed at all.”
Last year Gatiss, who's also written Doctor Who and Sherlock, said that Britain’s decision to leave the EU made a return more likely. Referring to the famous sketch involving the 'local shop' presided over by Edward and his wife Tubbs, he said: “Increasingly we have become a local country for local people and I wonder if there is something Brexity in us that we can do.”
The pitch-black comedy finished on BBC2 in 2002 and was followed by a film in 2005, The League of Gentlemen’s Apocalypse.
Other memorable characters included the local butcher Hilary Briss (played by Gatiss) who served a 'special meat' and sinister clown Papa Lazarou, who called everyone “Dave” and enjoyed kidnapping people while repeating his catchphrase: “You’re my wife now!”
