The League of Gentlemen - C/D? (now with added Psychoville)

there's a podcast for each episode of the new series, inside inside no. 9

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0824y01

Rewatched League with its new 'jokes of the time' warning (which seems strange attached to the reunion specials) and the first two series really feel like radio forced into the telly.

It's funnier than I was worried I might find it, but an awful lot of the humour is in the 'laugh at the grotesques' category, like some modern freaks how. Gatiss' monologues are a treat though.

I've also realised the opening titles are formatted directly like Chopping Mall, which I'm not sure I've heard the connection before. Will bring it up with them when the twitter strike is over.

That new Inside #9 was something.

Did you like? I'm a sucker for this kind of clever-clever meta stuff but could easily imagine it seeming insufferable to others.

I enjoyed it a lot, but then I'm (as are Pemberton and Shearsmith) a fan of pantomime and music hall which are very closely related. I'm also a sucker for 'your expectations were confounded and thence the humour arose' so the Genoa/Chicago/Alaska joke was my highlight.

I wouldn't be surprised if many found it exceptionally annoying though, especially the ultra-meta stuff from Gemma Whelan.

i'd've put the meta episode later in the series. seemed odd to start there.

it was a "clever" excuse to have tons of dad-jokes (and I liked it)

I thought it was funny and annoying.

watched last night and enjoyed.

The meta stuff was an excuse to get the 'creatively bankrupt with this series' comment in before anyone else did.

I enjoyed the Reggie Perrin throwback with the leather chair.

I'm completely ignorant of whatever genre of theatre they were riffing on so a lot went over my head, but I applaud the audacity and ambition and it still made me laugh a good few times. I'd like to think there are a handful of nerds around the country who got all the references and were totally wigging out over this episode.

i'd've put the meta episode later in the series. seemed odd to start there.

Didn't last season open with a fairly but not quite as oblique Shakespeare parody?

oh, that was first of series 4, but yes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commedia_dell%27arte - they mentioned this early on. (but, yes, peculiar italian thing that i only know by references in other things, Punch and Judy being the most obvious)

i just thought it was particularly perverse having the first episode after a long delay not show the faces of the main cast.

I'd like to think there are a handful of nerds around the country who got all the references and were totally wigging out over this episode.

indeed, the Cook'd and Bomb'd forum, which was namechecked towards the start of the episode.

(but, yes, peculiar italian thing that i only know by references in other things, Punch and Judy being the most obvious)

My knowledge of commedia dell'arte comes mostly from commentary tracks on Italian western blu rays, but its influence looms so large over modern comedy that I felt I "got" most of the references even w/o being particularly familiar with the artform itself.

i just thought it was particularly perverse having the first episode after a long delay not show the faces of the main cast.

red rag to a bull with that lot.

Most recent mainstream drop of commedia dell'arte probably comes from Upstart Crow where, for reasons that are never properly explained, Spencer Jones plays Will Kempe as an allegory of Ricky Gervais and insists that he's huge in Italy where they're much more educated about comedy* (specifically commedia dell'arte) and you just don't get why he's a comedy genius because you're thick). He talks a fair bit about the tropes and characters and how they interact.

* Without giving Ben Elton too much credit, this may be a reference to Kempe's Jigs being very much like commedia dell'arte - although probably a more likely forerunner of pantomime just because it's British - although it's entirely probable this was just concurrent development of an idea since there isn't a huge link placing Kempe in Italy until after he retired from the stage.

the inside inside number 9 (listening now) covers pretty much everything we've mentioned here.

apparently they had all of series 6 written, couldn't film it because of covid. so started writing series 7 during lockdown, then got asked to make them covid friendly, and this was one from series 7 filmed a lot earlier than planned.

first two of the new series have been quite good imo. must get into the podcast habit again

Underwhelmed by the first one, the second was alright. I'm getting a bit tired of both of them as performers.

Ha, was thinking they had really gone downhill. I still appreciate that they're making them but they're treading the same sort of ground.

Second one was very, very obvious. Suspicions were aroused when they said beforehand "inspired by a film but we're not going to name it so it doesn't spoil anything", but it was dropping references from the first couple of minutes.

Didn't like the one on the lake much either tbh.

I feel like Reece Shearsmith plays the same character in everything I see him outside of I9 these days

He even does inside Inside really.

I tend to watch the first and last five minutes and skip the rest now. At some point after eight-six series you'd think they would've figured out how to create actual people as opposed to the same old saucy postcard caricatures.

Watched the David Morrissey football one again recently, that's still the series highpoint for me.

The David Morrissey one was good and advanced all the way through, but the plot was far too convoluted.

Exactly how far had he gone? Did he fake the whole betting syndicate? Was the affair with the player just to unsettle him?

Very weak episode tonight.

I really enjoyed The Wicker Man one. There are a couple of duds in each series but for me the overall quality hasn't really dropped very much.

I tend to watch the first and last five minutes and skip the rest now. At some point after eight-six series you'd think they would've figured out how to create actual people as opposed to the same old saucy postcard caricatures.

― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 4 May 2022 10:25 (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

And this is one of the most baffling things I've ever read on this website.

inside number 9, the quiz show, was quite different from usual. just a pity it was lee mack as host.

i think they've skipped one though

No, the numbers are wrong because they've decided to count the Christmas one as part of the series.

The biggest problem with the 'surprise' episode (and this whole series really) is that it hasn't been funny at any point.

I'm basing that on the movie poster 'next week' thing at the end of one episode not matching the next episode and the continuity announcer saying the next one wasn't as advertised. but then i missed the first two due to recorder fail (the recorder being me, not knowing it had started)

yeah, listings mag had 'hold on tight' with robin asquith. poster was a pastiche of 'on the buses' and was 5/6. this week's is 5/5 and next week's is a repeat of mr king.

oh, you're right that ep 1 was the Christmas episode, so i only missed one

enjoyed the quiz show episode. not expecting any of them to be funny tbh, don't see it as a comedy series.

quiz show totally threw me. i started watching wondering if it was what it was, but Lee Mack and the contestants played it so straight (except for the older woman) and there was nothing funny, I initially switched it off.

i think the whole 'buses' posters/promo pics was part of the quiz show wind up i.e. so the announcer sounded genuine re it not being shown, so here's a new quiz show instead.

oh, that's a good idea, one that went right over my head.

(and it's borne out by the internal bbc database which doesn't list it, just 6 episodes and one clip

although oddly this image is called "Hold On Tight"

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/976x549_b/p0fp60w7.jpg

but shows lee mack)

series 3 of LoG is on That's TV (Freeview ch65) at the moment. i guess I saw it at the time but not since. bloke and his kid in an improvised Knight Rider car fighting crime? Spit and Polish. it has that confusing but at the end where all 6 episodes culminate in the same scene, but you've no idea what's going on for the first couple.

it's daily, and continues into season 4, which i'm not sure i even knew existed.

and Reece is in both in In The Earth and A Field In England on film4 tonight

Think S4 was the one they did years later, about 5 years or so ago xp

the episode guides talk about the town being bulldozed for a new road, and that rings a bell.

series 3 feels a bit o_O in 2024

I remember really liking S3 at the time. I liked the dark / experimental way it was morphing into more of a 'Tales of the Unexpected' type affair, rather than going for the more obvious laughs - something they'd continue with Inside No 9. I don't know how I'd feel about it now, it's been ages since I saw it and the comedic landscape's changed considerably since then. The Christmas Special will always be my fave

Not very funny is my memory of it.

I find the whole show borderline unwatchable now, despite loving it at the time. Always lukewarm on stuff past S2 though.

series 4 started last night and it's obviously going to be 6 episodes of throwbacks to previous characters before they literally bulldoze over it all.

Geoff Tibbs going to London to become a stand-up comedian is a great episode.