The League Of Gentlemen - Series 3 (2002) [DVD]

Product Description The third series of the BAFTA Award-winning comedy finds a terrible, tragic accident bringing a conclusion to the stories of some of the strange inhabitants of Royston Vasey. Also featuring the return of transsexual cab driver Barbara and Legz Akimbo. Contains all six episodes from Series Three: The Lesbian and the Monkey Pauline is released from potting pinks at HMP Clitclink, with dreams of opening a pen shop called ‘Her Nibs’. The One-Armed Man is King Joke shop owner Lance has an illicit operation to graft on a new arm, but it has a mind of its own. Turn Again Geoff Tipps Dismissed from his job, Geoff goes to London to make his fortune as a stand-up comedian. Soon his face – well, an identikit picture – is on prime-time TV. The Medusa Touch As ‘sexplorers’ try out a new sex aid at Alvin and Sunny Steele’s B&B, Alvin escapes to the garden centre in search of more than compost bins … Beauty and the Beast or Come Into My Parlour Handyman Charlie Hull is a great help at Judee Levenson’s new beauty parlour Spit ‘n’ Polish. Especially since he’s started providing special extras … How the Elephant Got Its Trunk There’s a new volunteer at the charity shop – amateur dramatics enthusiast Keith Drop. Meanwhile, Dog Cinema boss Kenny Harris is confronted by his arch-enemy, cat crazy Dougal Siepp. Amazon.co.uk Review The third series of The League of Gentlemen takes the portmanteau horror approach of their Christmas Special and extends it daringly across the entire six episodes. Here, each half-hour instalment is a self-contained story featuring various familiar and less well-known inhabitants of Britain's most accursed town, Royston Vasey. But each individual tale leads--horribly, inevitably--towards a single shocking event, the full circumstances of which are only realised in a final, macabre twist. It's all far too bleak to be called comedy, just too damn funny to be anything else. This is a team who have always defined their own rules, nowhere more boldly than here. Opening with a funky new theme tune, the six episodes feature--among others--ex-con Pauline and Mickey in a touching tale of transvestisism; Lance the one-armed comedy shop owner yearning for a new limb; foul-tempered Geoff Tipps trying to make it as a stand-up comic in "Lundun"; some eye-popping fetishist behaviour at the local B&B; seedy goings-on in the massage parlour; and, most horrendously of all, the dreaded return of Papa Lazarou. It all proved too much for some viewers--too grotesque, too offbeat, too surreal. Packed with knowing references to obscure movies and filled with the most unpleasant characters ever to grace a "sitcom", this is certainly an uncompromising series, and one that invites fascinated speculation on what dark delights await in their upcoming movie. On the DVD: The League of Gentlemen, Series 3 two-disc set maintains the high standard of extra features established by the previous series. Here there's more raucous "Local Gossip" with the four gents on the first disc, plus a second disc of insightful background material including: a 30-minute making of documentary by Adam Buxton (of Adam and Joe); a candid video diary from Steve Pemberton; a truly dire magic tutorial from Dean Tavalouris (Reece Shearsmith); Joby Talbot's music score; an interview with costume designer Yves Barre; outtakes and deleted scenes; plus a Mike King Enterprises editing suite, enabling you to muck about with the ending sequence and ruin it completely. --Mark Walker