The League of Gentlemen TV reunion looks set to air on BBC2 over Christmas.
Two of the four League members, Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, revealed the news while being interviewed by Adam Buxton during a live recording of Buxton's podcast as part of The London Podcast Festival at Kings Place in Kings Cross.
In a wide-ranging interview the performers were tight-lipped about which old characters would be returning, but they did say that things were going well and they were enjoying getting back together again. Pemberton said that they had originally only planned a one-hour special but had so many ideas it grew into three separate episodes. They start filming in two weeks.
Steve Pemberton did suggest that the tone might be slightly different the second time around. Now that they were in their forties and parents they no longer had that "fuck you" attitude they had when they first made their TV shows. "It's been weird going back and recreating it but for a modern audience." Questions sent in via Twitter wondered whether they would be able to do characters such as Papa Lazarou and their trangender taxi driver Barbara in this more politically sensitive era. Shearsmith said that he never considered Lazarou to be "blackface," and that he associated his make-up with clowns. They do think about what they do and don't just shock people for the sake of it. "We're not monsters," laughed Shearsmith.
Even in the early days, however, they had produced strong reactions. They were sent voodoo-style "Wicker Man" dolls with their faces on them and one of the group once received a death threat. Listen to the podcast to find out more.
Mark Gatiss could not take part in the interview as he had just flown to Los Angeles for the Emmys, while non-performing member Jeremy Dyson was at home in Ilkley. Interestingly Shearsmith and Pemberton revealed that Dyson did perform onstage when they first started but they suggested that maybe the acting should be left to the three members of the troupe who had spent three years studying drama at Bretton Hall. Shearsmith said that Dyson decided to "fall on his sword" and stick to writing.
They were reluctant to say whether Edward and Tubbs would return with their local shop for local people in the new TV shows, but did recall how the seed of the idea came very early on when they went to Rottingdean, close to Brighton where they were doing a gig at Komedia, to visit a wishing stone and make a wish. Afterwards they popped into a small shop nearby selling shells where the owner seemed slightly terrified of them - possibly because they were young and two of them were wearing baseball caps. The idea of Royston Vasey's local shop was born...
Listen to Adam Buxton's Shearsmith/Pemberton podcast here.
Picture credit: James Drew Turner.
