The broadcast dates of the new episodes of The League of Gentlemen have been revealed.

Reece Shearsmith announced the news on Twitter to the delight of the show's fans: "Our new “League of Gentlemen” shows will be shown on the 18th, 19th and 20th December on @BBCTwo. Merry Christmas!"

More details of the three episodes have been made public in an interview that Shearsmith, Mark Gatiss and Steve Pemberton gave to the BBC while shooting the show in Manchester earlier this year. In the new episodes, residents will rise up to battle "administrative annihilation" after boundary changes threaten to wipe Roysont Vasey off the map.

Shearsmith says the scripts "sort of poured out of us" and they avoided getting "trapped in the headlights of the enormity of what it could be. Part of the main story arc is about Royston Vasey now and how it's even further in decline than it was before." 

Gatiss rejects the idea that the comeback was inspired by Brexit, although last year he told BBC 6 Music that he had an idea for a Brexit theme because Britain had "become a local country for local people". He now clarifies things: "The people of Royston Vasey are so strange, many of them can't vote, can't eat, can't see. I wouldn't like to presume the politics of Royston Vasey. It's a weird bunch of strange people roped together for a concept."

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