TV review by Steve Bennett

The League Of Gentlemen’s comeback will delight fans. But then, that was always a given. 

The challenge was for Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton, Mark Gatiss and their co-writer Jeremy Dyson is to make new shows that could stand on their own merits, alongside the well-remembered originals. And that’s a job well done in the first of these delightfully sinister episodes.

Viewers will certainly get a happy wave of nostalgia at Pauline barrelling into her Restart class and chirping: ’Okey Cokey! Pig in a pokey’. But how come we are we back to where we were? Does she not recognise jobseekers Mickey and Ross after all they’ve been through? That familiarity of her catchphrase quickly turns to something a little more unsettling. It turns out some of Royston Vasey’s strange inhabitants are even more psychologically damaged than they were 15 years ago, having lived through the events of the original three series.

Our return to the town mirrors that of Benjamin Denton, the token ‘normal’ character, who is coming back for the funeral of his very meticulous, toad-loving Uncle Harvey. Even for this peculiar family, things are not normal since his passing: Auntie Val’s devotion to Nude Day, and the Twins’ sinister presence is not the half of it.

The town itself, at ‘the end of the line’, is down on its luck. Every shop is boarded up and the only place doing a roaring trade is the food bank. Punny closing-down notices are posted on their storefronts, a touch of silliness to leaven the darkness, and just a handful of the many jokes lying in the background for observant viewers..

There are also in-jokes for the die-hards, including a mention of the nearby town of Spent, the setting for the League Of Gentlemen’s original Radio 4 series. For there is talk that Royston Vasey is about to be wiped off the map, and incorporated into its bigger neighbour… and the suspcions are that the townsfolk won’t give up without a fight. We see the iconic sign being moved off the moors. ‘Didn’t there used to be shop up here?’ asks one of the labourers. 

Indeed, although you probably already know we haven’t seen the last of Edward and Tubbs. Such classic creations couldn’t be killed off… especially when insular local people fearful of everything in the outside world has such wider topical resonance.

Pop and Al, less well-remembered characters from the first two series, look set for a bigger role. We get reacquainted as Al’s enjoying a happy family life (and with Car Share’s Sian Gibson as his wife Tricia) when his apparently long-lost father, the obnoxious, domineering Pop, returns on a dark and stormy night with a heavy foreboding.

Transgender cab driver Barbara gets an update, now the gender fluid ‘are no longer the source of cheap laughs’… apparently. She’s also become a lot more militant about her status. Mr Chinnery returns for a particularly gruesome sketch, even by his accident-prone standards, while the one-dimensional innuendo of Herr Lipp is shoehorned in… although wasn’t it always? And listen out for a great cameo from Pamela Doove.

What will newcomers make of all this? A couple of scenes might be baffling without backstory, but the sense of weird things going on should prove a big enough hook to intrigue anyone, while the appalling ensemble all have their own mesmerising watchability, thanks to the skill of their creators. The devil not only has the best tunes, he has the best comedy characters, too, and this lot must be in League with him. 

• The League Of Gentlemen: Return To Royston Vasey is on BBC Two at 10pm tonight.

Review date: 18 Dec 2017
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