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
LeeGood evening and welcome to horror. I'm Lee.
ChrisI'm Chris.
AdamI'm Adam.
LeeAnd we are here for the first of our December run-up to Christmas episodes.
LeeWhere 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.
LeeSo, this evening we are covering the League of Gentlemen Christmas special from 2000.
AdamYep.
LeeWhich I didn't realize I'd come to this show so much later than it was on.
LeeI didn't come to this till I don't know, probably two years later, I think.
AdamBecause I assumed you were watching it when it first went out, same as I was.
LeeNo, I didn't. I've got a feeling we borrowed the box sets of seasons one and two.
Adam
LeeYeah, from Sharon had convinced us to watch it.
Adam
LeeAnd 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.
ChrisSo, 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.
LeeSee, that was going to be my next question. Have you ever seen the League of Gentlemen, Chris?
ChrisNo.
ChrisI, 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?
AdamYes, comes into it.
ChrisYeah, right, so I've definitely seen him.
ChrisThat might have been my introduction to it.
ChrisIt might have been you and Jennifer showing me, I'm your wife now, Dave.
AdamYes.
ChrisSomeone else needs to do the voice.
LeeQuite possibly.
LeeBecause Adam came once to one of our fancy dress parties as Papa Lazarou.
ChrisOh.
LeeSo, yeah, that that could have been what you why you were like, what is this and then went home and Googled it perhaps.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisBut I've definitely never seen this Christmas special, did not know they did a Christmas special and support.to.
LeeYeah.
AdamYeah.
LeeIt'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.
ChrisWell, because how do you step up more than legal already.
LeeYeah.
ChrisSomehow they managed to.
LeeAbsolutely.
LeeAnd I was wondering how you'd take it, Chris, as someone who didn't know all of the characters.
LeeBecause I imagine it still works, but.
ChrisYeah, well, so I did start watching.
ChrisSeason one to to just remind myself of all the characters and and what like.
ChrisI 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.
AdamYeah.
ChrisAnd on even on this they've got new ones.
AdamYeah, this was really the first one where they actually started.
AdamYou know, they had guests.
ChrisYeah.
AdamPlaying characters because obviously the the first two series it's.
AdamYou know, apart from apart from the Dent and kids who are, who were two little girls.
AdamWhich would have been very difficult for them to have played.
ChrisYeah.
AdamEssentially, yeah, they.
ChrisWell, to be it's amazing the characters they do manage to play.
AdamBecause so this was the first time that they actually had sort of guests in because obviously you got Lee Tarbuck and.
AdamFreddy Jones and I still can't believe that this is the first thing we've covered with Freddy Jones in it.
LeeI mean, that's a crime, isn't it?
LeeI 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.
AdamYes. Yeah, cuz he had a couple of them actually, isn't it?
LeeYeah, and he plays a real slimy dickhead.
LeeHe's fantastic.
AdamYeah.
AdamAnd obviously, and obviously he is the father of Toby Jones and, you know, the a great lineage of.
AdamCreepy and comedic possibilities in that sort of in that family, definitely, because.
AdamBecause because so Freddy Jones is Magnus Perblind, Chris, who does the curse of Carrick Poe.
AdamAnd yeah, I think he is.
AdamHe's spot on with the league where it's that thing of yet you're playing this absolutely straight.
AdamExcept you're also saying knackers.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd I was fucked and so you know, it's that being able to sort of drop those in and get it exactly pitched right.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd similarly, Lisa Tarbuck's fucking great.
AdamAnd apparently she was in for a day.
LeeNo, really.
AdamAll of her stuff was done in a day.
LeeBloody hell.
AdamAnd, you know, and she I mean, particularly the the twist of that story.
Lee
Chris
AdamWhere, you know, she she is cold as fucking anything when it's like the reveal of that twist of the Charlie and Stella story.
LeeYeah.
ChrisYeah.
AdamAnd.
LeeI loved it. I thought all of it.
LeeYou know, normally we've said before with anthologies, you've normally got a weak link in there somewhere.
LeeEvery one of these, the wrap around and all three of these stories are just perfect.
LeeThey are all so.
LeeAnd it is some of my favorite league moments in this.
LeeWhen 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.
ChrisOh, yes.
LeeIt just fucking nails me every time.
LeeI laugh so hard at that.
LeeI I must have seen it a dozen times.
AdamBecause I think that's the thing is you've got cuz you get the lovely.
AdamBecause weirdly enough, what you we I bought the box set like the Blu-ray and we've watched it in all the.
AdamSo literally we watched this about two months ago.
AdamAnd 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.
ChrisBut there is so much in this that it's there is a lot of rewatchability.
AdamBut it's I think this was this was almost like the sort of right the gloves are off horror.
AdamYeah.
ChrisYeah.
AdamBecause it's all the way through the first two series of the League of Gentlemen.
AdamIt's in there as a flavor, but you've also got.
AdamBecause 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.
ChrisYeah, like yeah.
AdamAnd they're like in a weird way, not to sound sort of not I'm sort of doing them a disservice or anything.
AdamBut it's like, oh, this is normal comedy, this is like a normal comedy show.
AdamYou know, it's just gag, gag, gag, like like airplane or something.
AdamWhich you don't necessarily think of with the league, but they, you know, they're they're hit rate on jokes is great anyway.
ChrisYeah.
AdamBut this seemed to be the first watching it sort of at the time and also rewatching it now.
AdamThis definitely felt like this was like, no, we're just going to say, right, here's all the horror stuff we love.
Chris
AdamAnd, 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.
ChrisYeah, yeah.
AdamWhere it doesn't necessarily exist in the league world.
AdamBut 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.
AdamWhen they came back in 2017, whatever it was.
LeeWhich were excellent.
LeeI've got to say.
LeeThey'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.
LeeIt felt perfect.
LeeIt didn't it didn't feel like one of those, oh, we're doing a new cash in on an old.
LeeLike, it absolutely felt part of the universe.
LeeAnd it was.
AdamIt wasn't forced.
LeeNo.
AdamAnd it but and it but it wasn't just let's do the same shit again.
LeeNo.
ChrisYeah.
LeeNo.
LeeIt was it was new and it was different, but it it felt, yeah, it it it.
AdamIt was part of it, yeah.
LeeYeah.
AdamIt really sort of.
AdamYeah, 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.
AdamSo there was always this team and I think they managed to get back pretty much everyone each time.
AdamMostly because I think everyone really just enjoyed doing it.
AdamAlso, yeah, that so I think.
AdamBecause I've been weirdly enough, I've been listening to League of Gentlemen's just been getting a mention a lot on some podcast.
AdamI've been listening to, like just general TV once.
AdamAnd a lot of people are making the point and again watching this is it's like when you look at drama from around 2000.
AdamIt doesn't look as good as this.
AdamYeah.
AdamYou know, they Steve Bendellac really shoots the hell out of this.
AdamThis it looks great.
ChrisI 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.
LeeThey are sinister.
LeeEverything about it is sinister, and I love that about it.
LeeEven when it is pure comedy, there's a sinister edge underneath.
ChrisSomething underneath.
AdamI think also there's a lot of heart in it, there's a lot of truth in it, isn't there?
AdamCharlie and Stella, it's a very sad sort of relationship, you know.
AdamIt's it's just.
ChrisYeah, even from the start like really when they're shouting at the doctor who's not even there and.
AdamYeah, yeah, exactly.
AdamIt's just that there was small bits of normal talk after everything.
AdamThey've been saying to each other.
ChrisYeah, it's just how we are.
AdamBecause 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.
ChrisOh, okay.
AdamAnd Dr. Chinery again is kind of like a a running joke where it's just like, oh, Dr. Chinery is going to mutilate.
ChrisHe's the one who who killed the healthy dog, wasn't he?
AdamYes, yeah.
LeeThe sleeping one.
ChrisBy the fire.
AdamI think you might need to take a seat as I've some rather distressing news.
AdamAnd.
AdamBut again, so they sort of picked up on all these characters who weren't really, you know.
AdamIf you were thinking, oh, the League of Gentlemen at this point doing a Christmas special, it would be.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisThey got you.
ChrisYeah.
AdamTubbs and Edward, Pauline and the job seekers and you know, those were the sort of big characters from the show.
AdamSo they kind of go slightly on like second tier almost of characters.
AdamBut it works so fucking well.
AdamAnd Bernice, like Reverend Bernice is just fucking amazing anyway, cuz it's just such a great character of just.
LeeOne of my favorite bits in this whole thing.
LeeYeah, is in that opening, which as you say, this whole thing is horror, but the opening is the normal comedy.
LeeAnd it's just the seeing the piss hit the snow and then rolling it up in a ball and throwing it at Santa Claus.
LeeIt just.
LeeOh, yeah, it's.
AdamAnd the shocked elf's face is brilliant.
AdamIt has to be.
LeeYeah.
AdamBecause I I mean, I love also just the sort of like the little bits and pieces.
AdamLike I've got a load of, I've got.
AdamI've got.
Lee3,000 m.
AdamYeah.
LeeYeah.
AdamThat's it.
AdamDo you want one?
AdamNo.
AdamLambert and Butler.
AdamYou're all right.
LeeYou're all right.
AdamAnd but also they do the lovely.
AdamBecause on the DVD and now on the Blu-ray, they've got it, but they've got Jonathan Rigby interviewing them about anthology films.
AdamBecause they're saying about how they love them and they sort of obviously that's what they decided to do.
AdamThey also, I think we're very much cuz at the time, especially like in the sort of 90s.
AdamIf 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.
AdamSo it always so it always been like only fools and in Florida.
AdamOr, you know, like one foot in the Algar was one as well.
AdamAnd it was always like, well, we're doing a Christmas special, but actually it's going to be a knees up.
AdamAnd we'll just fucking go to Spain or whatever like that.
AdamWhereas they were like, no, we want to do snow, we want to do proper, you know, Christmas decorations and everything else like that.
AdamCuz I think they filmed it in like August and September.
AdamSo it wasn't exactly.
AdamOne of the statues in the graveyard was used in Sleepy Hollow.
AdamSo they said, oh, we we try to get that.
AdamGet that in as much as possible.
LeeWow.
LeeIs that the big robed figure?
LeeBecause I remember seeing it and being like, I I think if I saw that in a cemetery, that'd really.
LeeEspecially one that size as well, it'd really stand out.
LeeBut yeah, so that makes sense that it's been borrowed.
AdamExactly.
AdamSo, but but they do, they do.
AdamLike you said, they've got the they know their anthologies.
AdamSo 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.
AdamAnd then the Chinery in the 1890s, or 1895, I think that comes up or whatever like that.
AdamBut weirdly enough, the Chinery one was actually there was.
AdamAround the time they made this, there they also brought out a local book for local people, which was their first spin-off book.
AdamAnd.
AdamIt was fucking great, cuz I remember buying it and it was one of those things where.
AdamBecause there were a lot of comedy time books that were shit.
AdamBut they actually gave a shit and wanted to do like a quality book.
AdamYou know, it wasn't just a reprint or whatever like that.
AdamAnd.
AdamOne of the things in there is this story, the Curse of Carrick Poe, like the Chinery story.
AdamHe's in there as an actual sort of like piece of prose written by Mark Gatis.
AdamAnd on the DVD there's also him reading it, like Jack and Ory style, so it's also.
ChrisYeah.
AdamAnd 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.
AdamSo it was just like, yeah, we'll just go and film in that Victorian corner of the house and.
AdamI'll put on a smoking jacket and we'll read it like it's Jack and Rory.
LeeI'm going to watch that when we leave here.
LeeI never watch extras. I miss out on so much stuff.
AdamIt's really fun.
AdamIt really is.
Adam
AdamBut 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.
AdamSo 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.
AdamAnd there's the handsome cab, but it's Barbara doing driving it and stuff like that.
AdamAnd.
AdamBut yeah, there that that one is just perfect, I think, is just the Victoriana because they just get that.
AdamThey get the language right, but also the sort of that undercutting of it.
AdamAnd it possibly has my favorite league moment of anything.
AdamWhich is just the stupid joke about the he goes into the room and there's the crying figure.
AdamAnd it's.
LeeYeah.
AdamDr. Perblind, next star.
ChrisYeah.
AdamAll right.
AdamI just love the stupid and like the again the Victorian undercutting.
AdamWhere he sort of like saying, he never leaves his room except to go for a wee.
LeeThe bare butler, I forget that every time as well.
LeeI.
LeeAre you going to a costume party?
AdamNo.
LeeNo.
AdamAnd he.
LeeAnd then he just goes outside and picks up a man.
LeeYeah.
AdamYeah.
AdamWell, apparently Freddy Jones.
AdamThey 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.
AdamAnd I think David Warner would have been great.
AdamAnd David Ryal, I think they offered it to as well.
AdamBut Freddy Jones, I think just again, like I say, I think he just he's perfect.
AdamHe just he's just obviously walked in and just gone, no, I totally get this.
AdamAnd same as Lisa Tarbuck has, I think they just hit.
ChrisYeah.
AdamPay dirt with the guests in this and stuff.
LeeI'm such a massive fan of Lisa Tarbuck.
LeeShe's because she turned up a lot in the new French and Saunders series as well.
LeeYeah, oh, and she's just whenever she's in something like this, she's just so good.
LeeShe really.
AdamShe's always great.
AdamAnd I I am under strict instructions that just in case Lisa Tarbuck is listening to this, my wife wants to be your friend.
LeeWho doesn't want to be Lisa Tarbuck?
AdamExactly, that's what I said.
AdamThat's what I said.
UnknownI'll do an offer.
AdamOh, yeah, but she will she will make sure that you get some good chips.
AdamWhich she felt.
AdamBut I mean, I can just see them with, you know, giggling filthily together.
AdamYou 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.
AdamShe was like, she presented the big Brit big breakfast for Youngs.
AdamAnd that was what during one of its sort of better periods, I would say, like one of its heydays.
LeeYeah.
LeeDefinitely.
LeeBut then she did that TV the weirdest TV show ever, which was the thing about people's pets.
LeeAnd it was her and the guy from the fun loving criminal.
AdamYeah.
LeeAnd I was just, what the fuck is going on with who came up with that idea?
LeeBut I mean, it must have worked, it was Saturday night prime time, it was clearly crushing it, but.
AdamYeah.
LeeYeah, whoever came up with that idea was drunk.
AdamBecause 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
AdamAnd she was the like, she was the sister of the woman.
AdamAnd that and that was just the that was just a key moment in sort of family life.
AdamWhere every time it came on, my dad would have to say, that's Jimmy Tarbuck's daughter.
AdamAnd we go, yes, we know, Dad, you tell us every fucking week.
AdamSo.
AdamBut you've also got.
AdamFrancis Cox in there playing Mrs. Traffic, who is the the lady with the rabbit, who is in the first two series of the league.
AdamShe plays.
AdamAnnie Reigns, so she she.
AdamBasically, she has a lot of animals slaughtered by Mr. Chinery.
AdamAnd.
AdamAnd again, that's that's that opening gag where it's like reading out the letter.
AdamAnd it's actually she's reading it over Benjamin Shoulder.
ChrisYeah, yeah.
AdamWhich I just think is.
ChrisThat was such a perfect introduction.
AdamYeah.
AdamIt's just so good.
ChrisSummed up basically everything.
AdamYeah.
AdamBut this was her last this was her last sort of appearance in it because she I think she died a couple of years afterwards.
AdamBut 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
AdamBut also in the because Jeremy Dyson the non-acting member of the league is in there as.
AdamHe's the student who snaps his glasses in Chinery's lecture hall.
AdamHe's the hooded figure, he's dubbed, but he's the hooded figure who's who Dr. Chinery walks in on.
AdamBut 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.
AdamYeah, 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.
AdamSo it's just easier to get him him dressed up.
LeeAnd 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.
LeeOh yeah, and the orange juice thing just again is one of those every time I forget and it just makes me absolutely die.
LeeBecause then it reminds me of that sketch and yeah, it's just.
AdamBecause 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.
AdamYou know, to to a greater or lesser extent in the Chinery.
AdamBecause I mean you've got the railway children where he gets his ass out.
AdamAnd it's clear point there.
AdamIt was really good that they managed to get a truly horrible ass.
LeeYeah.
AdamYou know what I mean?
AdamIt's it's just an old man's one, Yeah, just an old man's like plated ass.
LeeHe's a real old man's one.
AdamYou know, no.
AdamBut they also do mention eating an onion as if to were an apple.
LeeYes.
LeeI loved it.
AdamYou know, another which we we've we've talked about before.
AdamBut.
AdamI also the Hairlip actually has a line from.
AdamThe Werner Herzog Nosferatu.
AdamBecause he says that the the absence of love is the most abject.
ChrisOh, yeah, yeah.
AdamAnd that is.
ChrisGetting getting things like that in there does definitely add to a sort of depth of.
LeeAnd I I feel with that one.
LeeThat one feels like the ghost stories for Christmas because of that 70s shooting and 70s clothes.
LeeYeah.
LeeYeah, it's just, oh, it's just brilliant.
LeeAnd I I think it it holds up so well.
Leeyeah, of the one of the of the of all of the stories in this, which I think all of them are brilliant.
LeeThat's the one I always remember, yeah, is the hair lip one.
LeeAnd 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.
AdamYeah.
AdamAnd and the overhead shot of hair lip being attacked by the boys.
LeeYeah.
AdamIs very is in Vampire.
AdamAnd you've got Psycho when he's looking through the hole in the wall and things like that.
AdamAnd it's again, they've just really gone to town where it's like, just put it all in because it's all.
AdamAgain, 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.
AdamWe'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.
AdamThey did a Halloween special.
AdamVery 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.
LeeHave we not covered that?
LeeI thought we'd covered that.
ChrisWe've never done that.
ChrisWe've definitely talked about it.
AdamWe never did this and we've never done Psychoville for Halloween.
AdamWe'll have to.
AdamI think because, yeah, it just seems like a it seems like a an odd one that we've missed.
ChrisWhat I was going to bring up was how good the theme tune is.
ChrisI 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.
ChrisIt's like, yeah, it's.
AdamAgain, again, they always had the same composer, a guy called Joby Talbot, who's a member of the Divine Comedy.
ChrisOh, okay.
AdamLike the the group, the Divine Comedy.
AdamBut also he is the guy holding a sheep in Dr. Chinery's waiting room.
ChrisOh.
AdamSo he he did get a cameo in this.
AdamAnd he also did like Psychoville and the Pitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie from 2005.
LeeI quite liked that.
AdamNo, it's yeah, it's pretty good.
AdamAnd and actually soundtrack wise, fucking great, cuz you got the song thanks for all the fish song, which was just brilliant.
Adam
AdamAnd actually the other you've also got David Arnold, the bond composer is the guy holding the fox in the thing.
ChrisOh.
AdamAnd again, that was.
AdamYou know, he.
AdamBut 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
AdamBut that it's an actor called Andrew Melville.
Adamand I'd never put two and two together, but and this means this will mean fuck all to anyone.
AdamBut for me.
AdamHe is Rory Spotwood, the Minister of Fisheries in the nine Lives of Thomas Cats.
AdamAnd I hadn't put two together and now I'm like, oh, course it's fucking.
LeeI still haven't seen that and you've been telling me to watch it for at least the last two decades.
AdamI I'm going to say.
AdamI've been saying it's my favorite film.
AdamI'm not necessarily telling people to watch it because I don't want them to be disappointed.
AdamBut for me, it's just brilliant.
ChrisYeah.
AdamI just love that film.
AdamIt's just.
AdamYeah.
AdamBut I don't want people to just I don't want to sort of like sell it as in like.
AdamAbsolutely.
AdamEveryone's going to love this.
ChrisThis is for you.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisIt's probably not for you.
ChrisBut it's it's amazing.
AdamIt's it's this may not be for you.
AdamBut for me, this this this hit all the buttons, this hit all the right notes.
LeeThe other thing I loved about that hair lip one and again, it's a fantastic character and I always loved it.
LeeIt'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.
LeeAnd that's why I can keep watching this because I'm laughing at one thing.
LeeAnd I've missed the next two jokes because they're just in such rapid fire succession.
AdamAbsolutely, 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.
AdamThe humor is always still there.
AdamBut the league, it's a proper hit rate.
AdamIt's genuinely gag, gag, gag, it's funny all the way through.
AdamAnd yet still has character, atmosphere, you know, sort of plot.
LeeYeah.
AdamTo a greater or lesser extent.
AdamYou know.
AdamAnd it sort of.
AdamCertainly 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.
AdamAnd I think cuz actually there's stuff in there like.
AdamI I'm I was trying to I was saying to Claire, I was trying to think.
AdamThat reveal that Hairlip isn't a vampire, but everyone around him is.
LeeYeah.
AdamWith the mirror.
AdamI can't think of that actually being in a horror film.
AdamOr like something that I've seen.
LeeNo.
AdamPeople people could let us know if there if if it is from something.
AdamBut I genuinely do not recognize that and it seems like such a brilliant sort of.
LeeDon't sit.
LeeYeah.
AdamYeah, just way of telling that sort of tale or whatever like that.
AdamBut I think, yeah, it's just I think it's genuinely something they've hit upon.
AdamThat's just really sort of, you know, a proper wow.
AdamIf that was in a film, that would be the bit that everyone remarked upon.
AdamBut weirdly it's in a in a Christmas special.
LeeIt is.
LeeActually, 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.
LeeLike so many of the the amicus and stuff, the twist at the end, I mean, you can see it coming an absolute mile away.
AdamBecause they're old cliches, stories, you know.
AdamThey're based on stuff we've like EC Comics and stuff like that, like, you know, we've heard them before.
AdamYeah.
LeeSo.
LeeBut 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.
LeeSo 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.
LeeIt works on every single level.
LeeIt's an absolute masterpiece.
AdamYeah.
AdamYeah.
AdamYeah.
AdamAnd yeah.
AdamAnd it's and this has been this has definitely been a Christmas staple for 25 years.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd sort of when Claire had never watched the league, so she came very late to the league and everything else like that.
AdamBecause it was only me and I, you know.
AdamAnd 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.
AdamThat it's a real sort of.
AdamSnowball from there, but we watch it every year, don't we?
AdamIt's.
AdamIt's this is this is like Black Christmas Carol.
AdamThis just has always been no, this we're doing that at Christmas.
AdamLike, you know, like waking up or you know, brushing your teeth.
AdamIt's just, yeah, that's happening.
AdamThat's that's obviously going to be, yeah.
LeeSo I I so we didn't see, I think Adam, you bought us this box set of the league.
LeeA few years ago.
AdamThat's right, yeah.
Leeand 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.
LeeAnd 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.
LeeIt's one of those you don't think of every year because you think of all the traditional movies.
LeeWhereas the TV specials.
LeeThere's you know, we shop and change what we do.
LeeBut yeah, every time it comes out, it I I'm just blown away.
LeeBy how pitch perfect it is on every level.
LeeIt's just.
LeeYeah, absolutely epic.
AdamAnd actually.
AdamI suppose.
AdamBecause I mean Mark Gatis obviously, I mean he did crooked house.
AdamBut I mean he's been doing the ghost stories for Christmas.
Lee
AdamFor the past what, 10 years or whatever it's been.
AdamYou know.
LeeWell, working my way back through those in reverse order currently.
AdamOn and off.
AdamYeah.
AdamOh, nice.
AdamBut again, that's like, you know, that seem to be like a ball this is kind of the ball rolling for that of.
AdamHe's always.
AdamHe's always busy at Christmas.
AdamUsually telling a Victorian ghost story.
LeeYeah.
LeeOh, yeah.
LeeSo this is an absolute recommend from all of us.
ChrisYep.
LeeAs is all of the league stuff.
Lee
LeeYeah, I I would say, yeah, this does work on its own, but yeah, I think you just get a lot of the smaller references.
LeeIf it if it.
ChrisYeah, cuz they are packing so much into it.
LeeYeah.
ChrisYou will get more from it.
AdamIt is that sort of tree house of horror.
AdamThat sort of tree house of horror thing where it's like the Simpsons, you know.
AdamIf if you watch, you can watch a tree house of horror if you'd never seen an episode of the Simpsons.
ChrisAnd it would still be great.
AdamAnd it's.
AdamAnd 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.
LeeOh.
LeeBut yeah, fantastic.
LeeSo, for our continuation of December.
Leewe've had an excellent well, an excellent suggestion from Claire.
LeeAdam, would you like to tell people what we are going to be doing for our episode that will drop on the 21st of December?
AdamWell, my good lady wife had suggested that we should.
AdamThink of a horror film and then recast it as a Muppet movie.
AdamYou keep one human being, obviously, because in the grand tradition of Michael Caine and in Muppets Christmas Carol.
AdamAnd Tim Curry in Muppet Treasure Island.
AdamSo you have one essentially you have one human and then the rest of the cast of Muppets.
AdamAnd.
AdamSo we are going to basically discuss that.
AdamShould we reveal what film we've decided to go with?
LeeYeah, go on.
LeeLet us know.
AdamSo, so we are going with Bram Stoker's Dracula.
LeeOh.
Adam
AdamAnd.
AdamSo we will be we will be keeping the Magisterial Mr. Gary Oldman in the role.
ChrisWe got to do that, really.
ChrisYeah.
AdamBut beyond that, we shall be discussing exactly which Muppets are playing the rest of the characters.
AdamYou need something with a big cast.
AdamAnd.
AdamYou know, that that that film that film's.
AdamYou know, it's properly like the book, it's packed with characters.
AdamSo you've got plenty that you can play with.
LeeI can't wait to do this.
Christempting to try and come up with some now, but I'll get torn off.
AdamKeep your powder dry and we'll we'll we'll do it in a couple of weeks time.
LeeHonestly, 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.
LeeAnd just trying to put it all together. I think I'm going to laugh my tits off even just on my own doing this.
LeeIt's going to be so much fun.
LeeSo.
LeeYes, you've got time listeners, go and do the same yourselves and see if you come up with the same ones as we do.
LeeAnd we will be yeah, basically.
Leeare we going to do it like a like a vote system or whatever?
LeeAre we going to argue?
AdamI think we'll.
LeeEach of us.
AdamWe'll trash it out, see I mean, because it might be that we stumble across similar characters for similar things.
AdamOr, you know.
ChrisYeah, yeah.
AdamIf it sort of like, yeah, but no, it's got to be.
AdamYou know, of course, of course the Swedish chef has got to be the man from the boat company.
AdamYou know, that's it.
LeeI will be expecting you Adam to be keeping the admin on this.
AdamYes, no problem.
LeeAs you are very much our.
LeeOur paperwork guy.
Leeyeah, just because you more rest of us really.
AdamNo, I.
AdamI promised.
AdamI promised to keep track and and shockingly remain sober.
LeeOh.
LeeSuch a legend.
LeeI won't be.
AdamCertainly will.
ChrisDying your duty.
AdamThat's the best way.
Lee
LeeBut yes, so thanks ever so much for listening everybody.
LeeGo and check out the League of Gentlemen Christmas special and all of the episodes of the League of Gentlemen.
LeeGo and watch.
LeeMuppet's Christmas Carol.
LeeI will be going to see it at the cinema next weekend as part of my.
ChrisNice.
LeeYeah.
LeeI'm going to be going to a cinema and spending the entire day trolling through they're doing loads of Christmas stuff.
Lee
LeeSo, 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.
LeeSo.
ChrisNice.
Leereally trying to get in the Christmas spirit as a Grinch type character that I normally am.
LeeSo we'll see how that turns out.
LeeBut yes, so thanks ever so much for listening everybody, have a great December, not Christmas, cuz it's not Christmas yet.
LeeAnd we'll see you just before Christmas.
LeeGood night.
ChrisGood night.
AdamNight, night.
