League of Gentlemen Christmas Special
00:37:50
About
Well Ho Ho Ho (to quote Santa when he was counting your three mums), it’s Christmas! Weirdly enough for a LoG-worshipping podcast, we’ve never actually got round to “The League of Gentlemen’s Christmas Special” (also known as “You’ll Never Leave”). Which is a tad strange as this was the time when the League truly revealed and revelled in their love of horror; with references galore in an anthology structure honouring the greats of Amicus; and three twisted tales that looked forward to where the Gents were heading in their subsequent careers, whilst also being worthy of inclusion in a “serious” horror anthology. Watch (or re-watch) to avoid spoilers and join us.
Adam's research
Verbatim lifts from Adam's own words in the episode. Click a timestamp to hear him say it.
- Guest actors and their roles/filming
Yeah, this was really the first one where they actually started. You know, they had guests. Playing characters because obviously the the first two series it's. You know, apart from apart from the Dent and kids who are, who were two little girls. Which would have been very difficult for them to have played. Essentially, yeah, they. Because so this was the first time that they actually had sort of guests in because obviously you got Lee Tarbuck and. Freddy Jones and I still can't believe that this is the first thing we've covered with Freddy Jones in it. … Yes. Yeah, cuz he had a couple of them actually, isn't it? … Yeah. And obviously, and obviously he is the father of Toby Jones and, you know, the a great lineage of. Creepy and comedic possibilities in that sort of in that family, definitely, because. Because because so Freddy Jones is Magnus Perblind, Chris, who does the curse of Carrick Poe. And yeah, I think he is. He's spot on with the league where it's that thing of yet you're playing this absolutely straight. Except you're also saying knackers. And I was fucked and so you know, it's that being able to sort of drop those in and get it exactly pitched right. And similarly, Lisa Tarbuck's fucking great. And apparently she was in for a day. All of her stuff was done in a day. And, you know, and she I mean, particularly the the twist of that story. Where, you know, she she is cold as fucking anything when it's like the reveal of that twist of the Charlie and Stella story.
- Director, crew, and visual quality
So there was always this team and I think they managed to get back pretty much everyone each time. Mostly because I think everyone really just enjoyed doing it. Also, yeah, that so I think. Because I've been weirdly enough, I've been listening to League of Gentlemen's just been getting a mention a lot on some podcast. I've been listening to, like just general TV once. And a lot of people are making the point and again watching this is it's like when you look at drama from around 2000. It doesn't look as good as this. Yeah. You know, they Steve Bendellac really shoots the hell out of this. This it looks great.
- Focus on 'second tier' characters
Because I think they didn't, because they don't really, because Charlie and Stella are sort of like in a couple of sketches over the period of the first series, hair lips in the second series and that's just like a single sorry. And Dr. Chinery again is kind of like a a running joke where it's just like, oh, Dr. Chinery is going to mutilate. … Yes, yeah. … I think you might need to take a seat as I've some rather distressing news. And. But again, so they sort of picked up on all these characters who weren't really, you know. If you were thinking, oh, the League of Gentlemen at this point doing a Christmas special, it would be. Tubbs and Edward, Pauline and the job seekers and you know, those were the sort of big characters from the show. So they kind of go slightly on like second tier almost of characters. But it works so fucking well. And Bernice, like Reverend Bernice is just fucking amazing anyway, cuz it's just such a great character of just.
- Production intent, filming details, and spin-off book origin
They also, I think we're very much cuz at the time, especially like in the sort of 90s. If anyone did a like if any comedy show did a fucking Christmas special, it was always an excuse for the cast to go on holiday. So it always so it always been like only fools and in Florida. Or, you know, like one foot in the Algar was one as well. And it was always like, well, we're doing a Christmas special, but actually it's going to be a knees up. And we'll just fucking go to Spain or whatever like that. Whereas they were like, no, we want to do snow, we want to do proper, you know, Christmas decorations and everything else like that. Cuz I think they filmed it in like August and September. So it wasn't exactly. One of the statues in the graveyard was used in Sleepy Hollow. So they said, oh, we we try to get that. Get that in as much as possible. … Exactly. So, but but they do, they do. Like you said, they've got the they know their anthologies. So they've got the wrap around story, then they've got like you have Charlie and Stella story's present day, then Hairlip story is 70s. And then the Chinery in the 1890s, or 1895, I think that comes up or whatever like that. But weirdly enough, the Chinery one was actually there was. Around the time they made this, there they also brought out a local book for local people, which was their first spin-off book. And. It was fucking great, cuz I remember buying it and it was one of those things where. Because there were a lot of comedy time books that were shit. But they actually gave a shit and wanted to do like a quality book. You know, it wasn't just a reprint or whatever like that. And. One of the things in there is this story, the Curse of Carrick Poe, like the Chinery story. He's in there as an actual sort of like piece of prose written by Mark Gatis. And on the DVD there's also him reading it, like Jack and Ory style, so it's also. And that's that's really good and I think it was I think it was actually just filmed in his house because he used to have the place all decked out all Victorian and everything. So it was just like, yeah, we'll just go and film in that Victorian corner of the house and. I'll put on a smoking jacket and we'll read it like it's Jack and Rory.
- Alternative casting for Freddy Jones's role
Well, apparently Freddy Jones. They did at one point they offered it to David Warner, who they obviously ended up working with in the film in the League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse. And I think David Warner would have been great. And David Ryal, I think they offered it to as well. But Freddy Jones, I think just again, like I say, I think he just he's perfect. He just he's just obviously walked in and just gone, no, I totally get this. And same as Lisa Tarbuck has, I think they just hit. Pay dirt with the guests in this and stuff.
- Francis Cox's role and Jeremy Dyson's cameos
But you've also got. Francis Cox in there playing Mrs. Traffic, who is the the lady with the rabbit, who is in the first two series of the league. She plays. Annie Reigns, so she she. Basically, she has a lot of animals slaughtered by Mr. Chinery. And. And again, that's that's that opening gag where it's like reading out the letter. And it's actually she's reading it over Benjamin Shoulder. Which I just think is. Yeah. It's just so good. Yeah. But this was her last this was her last sort of appearance in it because she I think she died a couple of years afterwards. But obviously, yeah, she was she was already part of the league, so it's quite it's nice that she's in there sort of a lot. Um. But also in the because Jeremy Dyson the non-acting member of the league is in there as. He's the student who snaps his glasses in Chinery's lecture hall. He's the hooded figure, he's dubbed, but he's the hooded figure who's who Dr. Chinery walks in on. But he also he is, if you look in the background at the line dancing, he's dressed as he's playing Mike King, you know, the DJ that Reece Smith plays the hospital DJ. Yeah, he's dressed as Mike King, so cuz Mike King there's a voice over of Mike King, but obviously he Reese Smith was playing Stella at that point. So it's just easier to get him him dressed up.
- Horror influences and homages
Because and that's that's the thing is I think that they they always just um, you know, again, this this is one where all the influences are on the sleeve, so you've got eyes wide shut, you've got Nosferatu, you've got and basically the entire of Victorian horror fiction. You know, to to a greater or lesser extent in the Chinery. Because I mean you've got the railway children where he gets his ass out. And it's clear point there. It was really good that they managed to get a truly horrible ass. You know what I mean? It's it's just an old man's one, Yeah, just an old man's like plated ass. You know, no. But they also do mention eating an onion as if to were an apple. You know, another which we we've we've talked about before. But. I also the Hairlip actually has a line from. The Werner Herzog Nosferatu. Because he says that the the absence of love is the most abject. And that is. … Yeah. And and the overhead shot of hair lip being attacked by the boys. Is very is in Vampire. And you've got Psycho when he's looking through the hole in the wall and things like that. And it's again, they've just really gone to town where it's like, just put it all in because it's all. Again, I think they there's like there's almost like a freedom of like, right, we know this is a bubble, this isn't the continuing story necessarily, this is just right. We're going to which oddly enough, we'll have to maybe we'll have to do it next year, but like Psychoville, which was recent, um, Steve's follow up. They did a Halloween special. Very much in the same vein where it's characters that you know are familiar with, but it doesn't actually then not actually real events if you see what I mean.
- Composer, other cameos, and cast connections
But also he is the guy holding a sheep in Dr. Chinery's waiting room. So he he did get a cameo in this. And he also did like Psychoville and the Pitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie from 2005. No, it's yeah, it's pretty good. And and actually soundtrack wise, fucking great, cuz you got the song thanks for all the fish song, which was just brilliant. Um. And actually the other you've also got David Arnold, the bond composer is the guy holding the fox in the thing. And again, that was. You know, he. But the one I hadn't actually realized is the guy who plays old Matthew, like who comes in for like for the hair lip flashback, because obviously, again, Reese is already playing Bernice, so he can't play the older version. Uh. But that it's an actor called Andrew Melville. Um, and I'd never put two and two together, but and this means this will mean fuck all to anyone. But for me. He is Rory Spotwood, the Minister of Fisheries in the nine Lives of Thomas Cats. And I hadn't put two together and now I'm like, oh, course it's fucking. … I I'm going to say. I've been saying it's my favorite film.
- Originality of Hairlip's vampire twist
That reveal that Hairlip isn't a vampire, but everyone around him is. With the mirror. I can't think of that actually being in a horror film. Or like something that I've seen. People people could let us know if there if if it is from something. But I genuinely do not recognize that and it seems like such a brilliant sort of. Yeah, just way of telling that sort of tale or whatever like that. But I think, yeah, it's just I think it's genuinely something they've hit upon. That's just really sort of, you know, a proper wow. If that was in a film, that would be the bit that everyone remarked upon. But weirdly it's in a in a Christmas special.
- Mark Gatiss's Ghost Stories for Christmas
Because I mean Mark Gatis obviously, I mean he did crooked house. But I mean he's been doing the ghost stories for Christmas. For the past what, 10 years or whatever it's been. You know. On and off. Yeah. Oh, nice. But again, that's like, you know, that seem to be like a ball this is kind of the ball rolling for that of. He's always. He's always busy at Christmas. Usually telling a Victorian ghost story.
Highlights
Transcript
Show full transcript
Lee Good evening and welcome to horror. I'm Lee.
Chris I'm Chris.
Adam I'm Adam.
Lee And we are here for the first of our December run-up to Christmas episodes.
Lee Where we're going to be discussing well, kind of Christmassy stuff. This is definitely Christmassy. Next episode is Christmas adjacent, but we'll get to that at the end of the episode.
Lee So, this evening we are covering the League of Gentlemen Christmas special from 2000.
Adam Yep.
Lee Which I didn't realize I'd come to this show so much later than it was on.
Lee I didn't come to this till I don't know, probably two years later, I think.
Adam Because I assumed you were watching it when it first went out, same as I was.
Lee No, I didn't. I've got a feeling we borrowed the box sets of seasons one and two.
Adam
Lee Yeah, from Sharon had convinced us to watch it.
Adam
Lee And I found it incredibly difficult to get into, but once I got into it, I was like, why did I not get this? But it's just so grim. Anyway, we'll get.
Chris So, so you watched it, let's say, we'll give you 2002. That's still 23 years that you managed to keep this quiet from me.
Lee See, that was going to be my next question. Have you ever seen the League of Gentlemen, Chris?
Chris No.
Chris I, well, yeah, I have, it turns out I've probably seen a few episodes from season one, definitely, or at least I think a couple from season two, because is it season two where Papa Lazarou?
Adam Yes, comes into it.
Chris Yeah, right, so I've definitely seen him.
Chris That might have been my introduction to it.
Chris It might have been you and Jennifer showing me, I'm your wife now, Dave.
Adam Yes.
Chris Someone else needs to do the voice.
Lee Quite possibly.
Lee Because Adam came once to one of our fancy dress parties as Papa Lazarou.
Chris Oh.
Lee So, yeah, that that could have been what you why you were like, what is this and then went home and Googled it perhaps.
Chris Yeah.
Chris But I've definitely never seen this Christmas special, did not know they did a Christmas special and support.to.
Lee Yeah.
Adam Yeah.
Lee It's that's and that's the thing with league. It's it is that very British hammer amicus horror all the way through, but yeah, when they dropped this obviously as their Christmas, as they, yeah, as I say, the amicus type with the great wrapper around, I just loved it. But it.
Chris Well, because how do you step up more than legal already.
Lee Yeah.
Chris Somehow they managed to.
Lee Absolutely.
Lee And I was wondering how you'd take it, Chris, as someone who didn't know all of the characters.
Lee Because I imagine it still works, but.
Chris Yeah, well, so I did start watching.
Chris Season one to to just remind myself of all the characters and and what like.
Chris I don't know if I'd, I must have known it at the time, but I really appreciate just how it's mostly three of them playing so many different characters.
Adam Yeah.
Chris And on even on this they've got new ones.
Adam Yeah, this was really the first one where they actually started.
Adam You know, they had guests.
Chris Yeah.
Adam Playing characters because obviously the the first two series it's.
Adam You know, apart from apart from the Dent and kids who are, who were two little girls.
Adam Which would have been very difficult for them to have played.
Chris Yeah.
Adam Essentially, yeah, they.
Chris Well, to be it's amazing the characters they do manage to play.
Adam Because so this was the first time that they actually had sort of guests in because obviously you got Lee Tarbuck and.
Adam Freddy Jones and I still can't believe that this is the first thing we've covered with Freddy Jones in it.
Lee I mean, that's a crime, isn't it?
Lee I mean, I love Freddy Jones, but yeah, I think of him more I mean, I always think of him from like the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes and.
Adam Yes. Yeah, cuz he had a couple of them actually, isn't it?
Lee Yeah, and he plays a real slimy dickhead.
Lee He's fantastic.
Adam Yeah.
Adam And obviously, and obviously he is the father of Toby Jones and, you know, the a great lineage of.
Adam Creepy and comedic possibilities in that sort of in that family, definitely, because.
Adam Because because so Freddy Jones is Magnus Perblind, Chris, who does the curse of Carrick Poe.
Adam And yeah, I think he is.
Adam He's spot on with the league where it's that thing of yet you're playing this absolutely straight.
Adam Except you're also saying knackers.
Lee Yeah.
Adam And I was fucked and so you know, it's that being able to sort of drop those in and get it exactly pitched right.
Lee Yeah.
Adam And similarly, Lisa Tarbuck's fucking great.
Adam And apparently she was in for a day.
Lee No, really.
Adam All of her stuff was done in a day.
Lee Bloody hell.
Adam And, you know, and she I mean, particularly the the twist of that story.
Lee
Chris
Adam Where, you know, she she is cold as fucking anything when it's like the reveal of that twist of the Charlie and Stella story.
Lee Yeah.
Chris Yeah.
Adam And.
Lee I loved it. I thought all of it.
Lee You know, normally we've said before with anthologies, you've normally got a weak link in there somewhere.
Lee Every one of these, the wrap around and all three of these stories are just perfect.
Lee They are all so.
Lee And it is some of my favorite league moments in this.
Lee When the guy comes in on the bike, Reese Smith comes in on that bike and he's just talking ridiculously fast and chasing him round and round the table and it's just as he falls off.
Chris Oh, yes.
Lee It just fucking nails me every time.
Lee I laugh so hard at that.
Lee I I must have seen it a dozen times.
Adam Because I think that's the thing is you've got cuz you get the lovely.
Adam Because weirdly enough, what you we I bought the box set like the Blu-ray and we've watched it in all the.
Adam So literally we watched this about two months ago.
Adam And now and it was going to get rewatched for Christmas, so we've, you know, if combined that with with with the podcast so that it's, you know, I've done done done the double there in a weird way.
Chris But there is so much in this that it's there is a lot of rewatchability.
Adam But it's I think this was this was almost like the sort of right the gloves are off horror.
Adam Yeah.
Chris Yeah.
Adam Because it's all the way through the first two series of the League of Gentlemen.
Adam It's in there as a flavor, but you've also got.
Adam Because the thing I always forget with the league is when you especially watching like watching back the first series and stuff like that, is I always forget those intros where they have so many just quick visual gags and there's puns and you know.
Chris Yeah, like yeah.
Adam And they're like in a weird way, not to sound sort of not I'm sort of doing them a disservice or anything.
Adam But it's like, oh, this is normal comedy, this is like a normal comedy show.
Adam You know, it's just gag, gag, gag, like like airplane or something.
Adam Which you don't necessarily think of with the league, but they, you know, they're they're hit rate on jokes is great anyway.
Chris Yeah.
Adam But this seemed to be the first watching it sort of at the time and also rewatching it now.
Adam This definitely felt like this was like, no, we're just going to say, right, here's all the horror stuff we love.
Chris
Adam And, you know, we we will go balls out. It's it's a horror thing. As they say, it's kind of a bubble, like a bit like a tree house of horror.
Chris Yeah, yeah.
Adam Where it doesn't necessarily exist in the league world.
Adam But then there's a lot of stuff in there that kind of feeds in like Val Denton being a witch sort of eventually really does become part of like the anniversary episodes.
Adam When they came back in 2017, whatever it was.
Lee Which were excellent.
Lee I've got to say.
Lee They're one of those shows how they managed to not do it for 15 years and then just come back and not miss a beat.
Lee It felt perfect.
Lee It didn't it didn't feel like one of those, oh, we're doing a new cash in on an old.
Lee Like, it absolutely felt part of the universe.
Lee And it was.
Adam It wasn't forced.
Lee No.
Adam And it but and it but it wasn't just let's do the same shit again.
Lee No.
Chris Yeah.
Lee No.
Lee It was it was new and it was different, but it it felt, yeah, it it it.
Adam It was part of it, yeah.
Lee Yeah.
Adam It really sort of.
Adam Yeah, you didn't but then I think that was cuz Steve Bendelach, who directed this, is their was their director all the way through and he came back for it and a lot of the crew came back and like Eve Bar, who does the costumes, who did the costumes for Psychoville, inside number nine, and he even did the the theater inside like the live stage right, the live inside number nine and stuff like.
Adam So there was always this team and I think they managed to get back pretty much everyone each time.
Adam Mostly because I think everyone really just enjoyed doing it.
Adam Also, yeah, that so I think.
Adam Because I've been weirdly enough, I've been listening to League of Gentlemen's just been getting a mention a lot on some podcast.
Adam I've been listening to, like just general TV once.
Adam And a lot of people are making the point and again watching this is it's like when you look at drama from around 2000.
Adam It doesn't look as good as this.
Adam Yeah.
Adam You know, they Steve Bendellac really shoots the hell out of this.
Adam This it looks great.
Chris I kind of think what they really get right is that that balance between the costumes and the acting and the characters are all on this sort of level of they should be ridiculous, and they are in many ways, but they also really have this depth of just likeness or uncanny.
Lee They are sinister.
Lee Everything about it is sinister, and I love that about it.
Lee Even when it is pure comedy, there's a sinister edge underneath.
Chris Something underneath.
Adam I think also there's a lot of heart in it, there's a lot of truth in it, isn't there?
Adam Charlie and Stella, it's a very sad sort of relationship, you know.
Adam It's it's just.
Chris Yeah, even from the start like really when they're shouting at the doctor who's not even there and.
Adam Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Adam It's just that there was small bits of normal talk after everything.
Adam They've been saying to each other.
Chris Yeah, it's just how we are.
Adam Because I think they didn't, because they don't really, because Charlie and Stella are sort of like in a couple of sketches over the period of the first series, hair lips in the second series and that's just like a single sorry.
Chris Oh, okay.
Adam And Dr. Chinery again is kind of like a a running joke where it's just like, oh, Dr. Chinery is going to mutilate.
Chris He's the one who who killed the healthy dog, wasn't he?
Adam Yes, yeah.
Lee The sleeping one.
Chris By the fire.
Adam I think you might need to take a seat as I've some rather distressing news.
Adam And.
Adam But again, so they sort of picked up on all these characters who weren't really, you know.
Adam If you were thinking, oh, the League of Gentlemen at this point doing a Christmas special, it would be.
Chris Yeah.
Chris They got you.
Chris Yeah.
Adam Tubbs and Edward, Pauline and the job seekers and you know, those were the sort of big characters from the show.
Adam So they kind of go slightly on like second tier almost of characters.
Adam But it works so fucking well.
Adam And Bernice, like Reverend Bernice is just fucking amazing anyway, cuz it's just such a great character of just.
Lee One of my favorite bits in this whole thing.
Lee Yeah, is in that opening, which as you say, this whole thing is horror, but the opening is the normal comedy.
Lee And it's just the seeing the piss hit the snow and then rolling it up in a ball and throwing it at Santa Claus.
Lee It just.
Lee Oh, yeah, it's.
Adam And the shocked elf's face is brilliant.
Adam It has to be.
Lee Yeah.
Adam Because I I mean, I love also just the sort of like the little bits and pieces.
Adam Like I've got a load of, I've got.
Adam I've got.
Lee 3,000 m.
Adam Yeah.
Lee Yeah.
Adam That's it.
Adam Do you want one?
Adam No.
Adam Lambert and Butler.
Adam You're all right.
Lee You're all right.
Adam And but also they do the lovely.
Adam Because on the DVD and now on the Blu-ray, they've got it, but they've got Jonathan Rigby interviewing them about anthology films.
Adam Because they're saying about how they love them and they sort of obviously that's what they decided to do.
Adam They also, I think we're very much cuz at the time, especially like in the sort of 90s.
Adam If anyone did a like if any comedy show did a fucking Christmas special, it was always an excuse for the cast to go on holiday.
Adam So it always so it always been like only fools and in Florida.
Adam Or, you know, like one foot in the Algar was one as well.
Adam And it was always like, well, we're doing a Christmas special, but actually it's going to be a knees up.
Adam And we'll just fucking go to Spain or whatever like that.
Adam Whereas they were like, no, we want to do snow, we want to do proper, you know, Christmas decorations and everything else like that.
Adam Cuz I think they filmed it in like August and September.
Adam So it wasn't exactly.
Adam One of the statues in the graveyard was used in Sleepy Hollow.
Adam So they said, oh, we we try to get that.
Adam Get that in as much as possible.
Lee Wow.
Lee Is that the big robed figure?
Lee Because I remember seeing it and being like, I I think if I saw that in a cemetery, that'd really.
Lee Especially one that size as well, it'd really stand out.
Lee But yeah, so that makes sense that it's been borrowed.
Adam Exactly.
Adam So, but but they do, they do.
Adam Like you said, they've got the they know their anthologies.
Adam So they've got the wrap around story, then they've got like you have Charlie and Stella story's present day, then Hairlip story is 70s.
Adam And then the Chinery in the 1890s, or 1895, I think that comes up or whatever like that.
Adam But weirdly enough, the Chinery one was actually there was.
Adam Around the time they made this, there they also brought out a local book for local people, which was their first spin-off book.
Adam And.
Adam It was fucking great, cuz I remember buying it and it was one of those things where.
Adam Because there were a lot of comedy time books that were shit.
Adam But they actually gave a shit and wanted to do like a quality book.
Adam You know, it wasn't just a reprint or whatever like that.
Adam And.
Adam One of the things in there is this story, the Curse of Carrick Poe, like the Chinery story.
Adam He's in there as an actual sort of like piece of prose written by Mark Gatis.
Adam And on the DVD there's also him reading it, like Jack and Ory style, so it's also.
Chris Yeah.
Adam And that's that's really good and I think it was I think it was actually just filmed in his house because he used to have the place all decked out all Victorian and everything.
Adam So it was just like, yeah, we'll just go and film in that Victorian corner of the house and.
Adam I'll put on a smoking jacket and we'll read it like it's Jack and Rory.
Lee I'm going to watch that when we leave here.
Lee I never watch extras. I miss out on so much stuff.
Adam It's really fun.
Adam It really is.
Adam
Adam But I think that that I love the fact that the curse of Carrick Poe is the bit where it also just like, right, we are doing Royston and Vazy.
Adam So we'll we'll put in cameos for Pauline and Mickey and Ross at the start of it and there's Harvey Denton collecting for Toads and so on and so forth.
Adam And there's the handsome cab, but it's Barbara doing driving it and stuff like that.
Adam And.
Adam But yeah, there that that one is just perfect, I think, is just the Victoriana because they just get that.
Adam They get the language right, but also the sort of that undercutting of it.
Adam And it possibly has my favorite league moment of anything.
Adam Which is just the stupid joke about the he goes into the room and there's the crying figure.
Adam And it's.
Lee Yeah.
Adam Dr. Perblind, next star.
Chris Yeah.
Adam All right.
Adam I just love the stupid and like the again the Victorian undercutting.
Adam Where he sort of like saying, he never leaves his room except to go for a wee.
Lee The bare butler, I forget that every time as well.
Lee I.
Lee Are you going to a costume party?
Adam No.
Lee No.
Adam And he.
Lee And then he just goes outside and picks up a man.
Lee Yeah.
Adam Yeah.
Adam Well, apparently Freddy Jones.
Adam They did at one point they offered it to David Warner, who they obviously ended up working with in the film in the League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse.
Adam And I think David Warner would have been great.
Adam And David Ryal, I think they offered it to as well.
Adam But Freddy Jones, I think just again, like I say, I think he just he's perfect.
Adam He just he's just obviously walked in and just gone, no, I totally get this.
Adam And same as Lisa Tarbuck has, I think they just hit.
Chris Yeah.
Adam Pay dirt with the guests in this and stuff.
Lee I'm such a massive fan of Lisa Tarbuck.
Lee She's because she turned up a lot in the new French and Saunders series as well.
Lee Yeah, oh, and she's just whenever she's in something like this, she's just so good.
Lee She really.
Adam She's always great.
Adam And I I am under strict instructions that just in case Lisa Tarbuck is listening to this, my wife wants to be your friend.
Lee Who doesn't want to be Lisa Tarbuck?
Adam Exactly, that's what I said.
Adam That's what I said.
Unknown I'll do an offer.
Adam Oh, yeah, but she will she will make sure that you get some good chips.
Adam Which she felt.
Adam But I mean, I can just see them with, you know, giggling filthily together.
Adam You know, I think that's I think I think they'd get on famously, but I think no, Lisa Toback's great and obviously, you know, actress, but also present.
Adam She was like, she presented the big Brit big breakfast for Youngs.
Adam And that was what during one of its sort of better periods, I would say, like one of its heydays.
Lee Yeah.
Lee Definitely.
Lee But then she did that TV the weirdest TV show ever, which was the thing about people's pets.
Lee And it was her and the guy from the fun loving criminal.
Adam Yeah.
Lee And I was just, what the fuck is going on with who came up with that idea?
Lee But I mean, it must have worked, it was Saturday night prime time, it was clearly crushing it, but.
Adam Yeah.
Lee Yeah, whoever came up with that idea was drunk.
Adam Because I think the first thing I ever saw in there was a sitcom used to be called watching and she played like the one of the the the main it was like a couple and the reason it was called watching is they went bird watching.
Adam
Adam And she was the like, she was the sister of the woman.
Adam And that and that was just the that was just a key moment in sort of family life.
Adam Where every time it came on, my dad would have to say, that's Jimmy Tarbuck's daughter.
Adam And we go, yes, we know, Dad, you tell us every fucking week.
Adam So.
Adam But you've also got.
Adam Francis Cox in there playing Mrs. Traffic, who is the the lady with the rabbit, who is in the first two series of the league.
Adam She plays.
Adam Annie Reigns, so she she.
Adam Basically, she has a lot of animals slaughtered by Mr. Chinery.
Adam And.
Adam And again, that's that's that opening gag where it's like reading out the letter.
Adam And it's actually she's reading it over Benjamin Shoulder.
Chris Yeah, yeah.
Adam Which I just think is.
Chris That was such a perfect introduction.
Adam Yeah.
Adam It's just so good.
Chris Summed up basically everything.
Adam Yeah.
Adam But this was her last this was her last sort of appearance in it because she I think she died a couple of years afterwards.
Adam But obviously, yeah, she was she was already part of the league, so it's quite it's nice that she's in there sort of a lot.
Adam
Adam But also in the because Jeremy Dyson the non-acting member of the league is in there as.
Adam He's the student who snaps his glasses in Chinery's lecture hall.
Adam He's the hooded figure, he's dubbed, but he's the hooded figure who's who Dr. Chinery walks in on.
Adam But he also he is, if you look in the background at the line dancing, he's dressed as he's playing Mike King, you know, the DJ that Reece Smith plays the hospital DJ.
Adam Yeah, he's dressed as Mike King, so cuz Mike King there's a voice over of Mike King, but obviously he Reese Smith was playing Stella at that point.
Adam So it's just easier to get him him dressed up.
Lee And I love that when when she first goes in and you know the the cover and are kind of sitting there and they've all got masks on this whole characters you know, but they can't be playing all of them at once so they put these blank masks on all of them and then they just put the voices over.
Lee Oh yeah, and the orange juice thing just again is one of those every time I forget and it just makes me absolutely die.
Lee Because then it reminds me of that sketch and yeah, it's just.
Adam Because and that's that's the thing is I think that they they always just you know, again, this this is one where all the influences are on the sleeve, so you've got eyes wide shut, you've got Nosferatu, you've got and basically the entire of Victorian horror fiction.
Adam You know, to to a greater or lesser extent in the Chinery.
Adam Because I mean you've got the railway children where he gets his ass out.
Adam And it's clear point there.
Adam It was really good that they managed to get a truly horrible ass.
Lee Yeah.
Adam You know what I mean?
Adam It's it's just an old man's one, Yeah, just an old man's like plated ass.
Lee He's a real old man's one.
Adam You know, no.
Adam But they also do mention eating an onion as if to were an apple.
Lee Yes.
Lee I loved it.
Adam You know, another which we we've we've talked about before.
Adam But.
Adam I also the Hairlip actually has a line from.
Adam The Werner Herzog Nosferatu.
Adam Because he says that the the absence of love is the most abject.
Chris Oh, yeah, yeah.
Adam And that is.
Chris Getting getting things like that in there does definitely add to a sort of depth of.
Lee And I I feel with that one.
Lee That one feels like the ghost stories for Christmas because of that 70s shooting and 70s clothes.
Lee Yeah.
Lee Yeah, it's just, oh, it's just brilliant.
Lee And I I think it it holds up so well.
Lee yeah, of the one of the of the of all of the stories in this, which I think all of them are brilliant.
Lee That's the one I always remember, yeah, is the hair lip one.
Lee And then of course, the Nosferatu style bald head and twin teeth in the center, a bit like that and a bit like Salem's lot, it's got that really, oh, yeah, Roden E, oh.
Adam Yeah.
Adam And and the overhead shot of hair lip being attacked by the boys.
Lee Yeah.
Adam Is very is in Vampire.
Adam And you've got Psycho when he's looking through the hole in the wall and things like that.
Adam And it's again, they've just really gone to town where it's like, just put it all in because it's all.
Adam Again, I think they there's like there's almost like a freedom of like, right, we know this is a bubble, this isn't the continuing story necessarily, this is just right.
Adam We're going to which oddly enough, we'll have to maybe we'll have to do it next year, but like Psychoville, which was recent, Steve's follow up.
Adam They did a Halloween special.
Adam Very much in the same vein where it's characters that you know are familiar with, but it doesn't actually then not actually real events if you see what I mean.
Lee Have we not covered that?
Lee I thought we'd covered that.
Chris We've never done that.
Chris We've definitely talked about it.
Adam We never did this and we've never done Psychoville for Halloween.
Adam We'll have to.
Adam I think because, yeah, it just seems like a it seems like a an odd one that we've missed.
Chris What I was going to bring up was how good the theme tune is.
Chris I remember liking it before and then this I was like, it just so takes you back and it it really manages to to portray the quirkiness along with a sort of strange progression.
Chris It's like, yeah, it's.
Adam Again, again, they always had the same composer, a guy called Joby Talbot, who's a member of the Divine Comedy.
Chris Oh, okay.
Adam Like the the group, the Divine Comedy.
Adam But also he is the guy holding a sheep in Dr. Chinery's waiting room.
Chris Oh.
Adam So he he did get a cameo in this.
Adam And he also did like Psychoville and the Pitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie from 2005.
Lee I quite liked that.
Adam No, it's yeah, it's pretty good.
Adam And and actually soundtrack wise, fucking great, cuz you got the song thanks for all the fish song, which was just brilliant.
Adam
Adam And actually the other you've also got David Arnold, the bond composer is the guy holding the fox in the thing.
Chris Oh.
Adam And again, that was.
Adam You know, he.
Adam But the one I hadn't actually realized is the guy who plays old Matthew, like who comes in for like for the hair lip flashback, because obviously, again, Reese is already playing Bernice, so he can't play the older version.
Adam
Adam But that it's an actor called Andrew Melville.
Adam and I'd never put two and two together, but and this means this will mean fuck all to anyone.
Adam But for me.
Adam He is Rory Spotwood, the Minister of Fisheries in the nine Lives of Thomas Cats.
Adam And I hadn't put two together and now I'm like, oh, course it's fucking.
Lee I still haven't seen that and you've been telling me to watch it for at least the last two decades.
Adam I I'm going to say.
Adam I've been saying it's my favorite film.
Adam I'm not necessarily telling people to watch it because I don't want them to be disappointed.
Adam But for me, it's just brilliant.
Chris Yeah.
Adam I just love that film.
Adam It's just.
Adam Yeah.
Adam But I don't want people to just I don't want to sort of like sell it as in like.
Adam Absolutely.
Adam Everyone's going to love this.
Chris This is for you.
Chris Yeah.
Chris It's probably not for you.
Chris But it's it's amazing.
Adam It's it's this may not be for you.
Adam But for me, this this this hit all the buttons, this hit all the right notes.
Lee The other thing I loved about that hair lip one and again, it's a fantastic character and I always loved it.
Lee It's the speed of those, they're not puns, they're him getting English very slightly wrong, but it's every sentence is a word is out that just makes me laugh.
Lee And that's why I can keep watching this because I'm laughing at one thing.
Lee And I've missed the next two jokes because they're just in such rapid fire succession.
Adam Absolutely, I think that's the thing that people in a way forget, particularly with the league, because I think everything that's happened subsequently, obviously inside number nine is very much its own beast, it's an anthology, you can have moving stuff, funny ones, scary ones and everything else like that.
Adam The humor is always still there.
Adam But the league, it's a proper hit rate.
Adam It's genuinely gag, gag, gag, it's funny all the way through.
Adam And yet still has character, atmosphere, you know, sort of plot.
Lee Yeah.
Adam To a greater or lesser extent.
Adam You know.
Adam And it sort of.
Adam Certainly with this one, you know, there is they you have to have a twist, so you have these sort of things and everything else like that.
Adam And I think cuz actually there's stuff in there like.
Adam I I'm I was trying to I was saying to Claire, I was trying to think.
Adam That reveal that Hairlip isn't a vampire, but everyone around him is.
Lee Yeah.
Adam With the mirror.
Adam I can't think of that actually being in a horror film.
Adam Or like something that I've seen.
Lee No.
Adam People people could let us know if there if if it is from something.
Adam But I genuinely do not recognize that and it seems like such a brilliant sort of.
Lee Don't sit.
Lee Yeah.
Adam Yeah, just way of telling that sort of tale or whatever like that.
Adam But I think, yeah, it's just I think it's genuinely something they've hit upon.
Adam That's just really sort of, you know, a proper wow.
Adam If that was in a film, that would be the bit that everyone remarked upon.
Adam But weirdly it's in a in a Christmas special.
Lee It is.
Lee Actually, I like, yeah, it wasn't until watching it this time because I remember they were all horror stories, but I'd forgotten that the twists in all of these work.
Lee Like so many of the the amicus and stuff, the twist at the end, I mean, you can see it coming an absolute mile away.
Adam Because they're old cliches, stories, you know.
Adam They're based on stuff we've like EC Comics and stuff like that, like, you know, we've heard them before.
Adam Yeah.
Lee So.
Lee But all of the all of the twists in these land, every like when I saw it for the first time, every one of them was so far out of left field that I didn't see any of them coming, which just made it all the better.
Lee So it it looks great, it sounds great, it's funny, it's sinister and all of the all of it's scary and all of the twists work.
Lee It works on every single level.
Lee It's an absolute masterpiece.
Adam Yeah.
Adam Yeah.
Adam Yeah.
Adam And yeah.
Adam And it's and this has been this has definitely been a Christmas staple for 25 years.
Lee Yeah.
Adam And sort of when Claire had never watched the league, so she came very late to the league and everything else like that.
Adam Because it was only me and I, you know.
Adam And now I think Claire has such a love for the program and the the the league, the team of guys and all the other stuff they've done and things like that.
Adam That it's a real sort of.
Adam Snowball from there, but we watch it every year, don't we?
Adam It's.
Adam It's this is this is like Black Christmas Carol.
Adam This just has always been no, this we're doing that at Christmas.
Adam Like, you know, like waking up or you know, brushing your teeth.
Adam It's just, yeah, that's happening.
Adam That's that's obviously going to be, yeah.
Lee So I I so we didn't see, I think Adam, you bought us this box set of the league.
Lee A few years ago.
Adam That's right, yeah.
Lee and yeah, and I think until that point, we saw it, well, we didn't see it when it first aired, so I think we saw it when we first watched the box set.
Lee And then we didn't watch it again for yeah, a long time, but yeah, I think it's not every year for us, it's probably every two or three years, but yeah, when it comes out.
Lee It's one of those you don't think of every year because you think of all the traditional movies.
Lee Whereas the TV specials.
Lee There's you know, we shop and change what we do.
Lee But yeah, every time it comes out, it I I'm just blown away.
Lee By how pitch perfect it is on every level.
Lee It's just.
Lee Yeah, absolutely epic.
Adam And actually.
Adam I suppose.
Adam Because I mean Mark Gatis obviously, I mean he did crooked house.
Adam But I mean he's been doing the ghost stories for Christmas.
Lee
Adam For the past what, 10 years or whatever it's been.
Adam You know.
Lee Well, working my way back through those in reverse order currently.
Adam On and off.
Adam Yeah.
Adam Oh, nice.
Adam But again, that's like, you know, that seem to be like a ball this is kind of the ball rolling for that of.
Adam He's always.
Adam He's always busy at Christmas.
Adam Usually telling a Victorian ghost story.
Lee Yeah.
Lee Oh, yeah.
Lee So this is an absolute recommend from all of us.
Chris Yep.
Lee As is all of the league stuff.
Lee
Lee Yeah, I I would say, yeah, this does work on its own, but yeah, I think you just get a lot of the smaller references.
Lee If it if it.
Chris Yeah, cuz they are packing so much into it.
Lee Yeah.
Chris You will get more from it.
Adam It is that sort of tree house of horror.
Adam That sort of tree house of horror thing where it's like the Simpsons, you know.
Adam If if you watch, you can watch a tree house of horror if you'd never seen an episode of the Simpsons.
Chris And it would still be great.
Adam And it's.
Adam And it's still great, but it's much better when you are familiar with the characters and they're following the archetypes and stuff like that.
Lee Oh.
Lee But yeah, fantastic.
Lee So, for our continuation of December.
Lee we've had an excellent well, an excellent suggestion from Claire.
Lee Adam, would you like to tell people what we are going to be doing for our episode that will drop on the 21st of December?
Adam Well, my good lady wife had suggested that we should.
Adam Think of a horror film and then recast it as a Muppet movie.
Adam You keep one human being, obviously, because in the grand tradition of Michael Caine and in Muppets Christmas Carol.
Adam And Tim Curry in Muppet Treasure Island.
Adam So you have one essentially you have one human and then the rest of the cast of Muppets.
Adam And.
Adam So we are going to basically discuss that.
Adam Should we reveal what film we've decided to go with?
Lee Yeah, go on.
Lee Let us know.
Adam So, so we are going with Bram Stoker's Dracula.
Lee Oh.
Adam
Adam And.
Adam So we will be we will be keeping the Magisterial Mr. Gary Oldman in the role.
Chris We got to do that, really.
Chris Yeah.
Adam But beyond that, we shall be discussing exactly which Muppets are playing the rest of the characters.
Adam You need something with a big cast.
Adam And.
Adam You know, that that that film that film's.
Adam You know, it's properly like the book, it's packed with characters.
Adam So you've got plenty that you can play with.
Lee I can't wait to do this.
Chris tempting to try and come up with some now, but I'll get torn off.
Adam Keep your powder dry and we'll we'll we'll do it in a couple of weeks time.
Lee Honestly, I am so looking forward to putting a couple of hours aside and just bringing up the cast and bringing up all of the Muppets on another screen.
Lee And just trying to put it all together. I think I'm going to laugh my tits off even just on my own doing this.
Lee It's going to be so much fun.
Lee So.
Lee Yes, you've got time listeners, go and do the same yourselves and see if you come up with the same ones as we do.
Lee And we will be yeah, basically.
Lee are we going to do it like a like a vote system or whatever?
Lee Are we going to argue?
Adam I think we'll.
Lee Each of us.
Adam We'll trash it out, see I mean, because it might be that we stumble across similar characters for similar things.
Adam Or, you know.
Chris Yeah, yeah.
Adam If it sort of like, yeah, but no, it's got to be.
Adam You know, of course, of course the Swedish chef has got to be the man from the boat company.
Adam You know, that's it.
Lee I will be expecting you Adam to be keeping the admin on this.
Adam Yes, no problem.
Lee As you are very much our.
Lee Our paperwork guy.
Lee yeah, just because you more rest of us really.
Adam No, I.
Adam I promised.
Adam I promised to keep track and and shockingly remain sober.
Lee Oh.
Lee Such a legend.
Lee I won't be.
Adam Certainly will.
Chris Dying your duty.
Adam That's the best way.
Lee
Lee But yes, so thanks ever so much for listening everybody.
Lee Go and check out the League of Gentlemen Christmas special and all of the episodes of the League of Gentlemen.
Lee Go and watch.
Lee Muppet's Christmas Carol.
Lee I will be going to see it at the cinema next weekend as part of my.
Chris Nice.
Lee Yeah.
Lee I'm going to be going to a cinema and spending the entire day trolling through they're doing loads of Christmas stuff.
Lee
Lee So, yeah, Lumiere in Romford are showing loads of Christmas films, loads of stuff I've never seen before on the B screen, some I have, but I'm I'm going to go and watch like four Christmas films in the day.
Lee So.
Chris Nice.
Lee really trying to get in the Christmas spirit as a Grinch type character that I normally am.
Lee So we'll see how that turns out.
Lee But yes, so thanks ever so much for listening everybody, have a great December, not Christmas, cuz it's not Christmas yet.
Lee And we'll see you just before Christmas.
Lee Good night.
Chris Good night.
Adam Night, night.
