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

I think if I'd have been watching it for the plot rather than for the lolz I'd have been really fucked off with the ending as virtually everything turned out to be a gigantic red herring with some ridiculous deus ex machina at the end of it. Pretty sure they were well aware of this and taking the piss though.

Yeah, a second series... in 2011. With a one-off special next winter.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/psychoville/appointment/

halloween special on sunday (which i guess is the one-off special mentioned in last post):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00vw45s

They're also doing a thing on radio where they go to a haunted pub for a real life paranormal adventure.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00vhfjn

I am irrationally excited about this. Psychoville's the best thing I've seen on British telly in years.

Really excited for series 2 now.

This was okay, very well done on the creepiness front, could have done with a few more laughs.

I haven't watch it yet - waiting till I actually have a proper moment.

I hear a lot of people complain that League Of Gents/Psychoville could do with more laughs - this is often directed at things like LOG S3. But I preferred S3 for its intricate plotlines and studied acting more than S1 for its shock-gags. LOG are definitely unique in that the humour comes as much from horror as it does traditional comedy.

Did anyone listen to the radio thing though? I was really disappointed. I wasn't expecting the gents to actually meet any ghosts, but it seemed way too short to cover what they wanted, and very thin on content at that.

No I'm a big fan but there were several moments in this that they got so engrossed in the horror that they forgot to actually try and be funny in the first place. Some good one liners but the situations weren't quite there. It was similar to the majestic LoG Christmas special but not as good.

LOG Christmas is, I think, my favourite thing they've done (Psychoville episode 4 close runner up)

Finally watched this last night... Matt, you're right, there were very few gags but I still thought it was excellent. It's more like watching one of those camped-up '70s Tales From The Crypt-style portmanteau movies than a comedy, but I'm now well and truly psyched for series two!

I've started rewatching series 1, forgotten quite how good it is. "The killer has written 'fuck pig' on the wall in his or her own excrement!"

The perfect Xmas gift:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Reece-Shearsmith-League-Gentleman-Stars-Canvas-/180592257142?pt=UK_Art_CanvasGiclee_RL&hash=item2a0c232876#ht_508wt_936

the tivo is listing a new episode on 5/5

NOT NOW, SILENT SINGER

Silent Singer is by far the best and most intriguing (and possibly funniest in it's own twisted way) thing about the new series. According to Reece Shearsmith's Twitter there are supposed to be number clues dotted throughout all the episodes. Enjoying these, but the episodes feel VERY short. Could do with being 45 minutes long.

Tina Turner wasn't quite as funny as a lot of people are making out, although apparently it was next-to unfilmable as the crew and actors couldn't stop laughing.

Watched the first episode and yes very creepy but, clown funeral aside, it just wasn't very funny.

i'm willing to forgive Psychoville for not being very funny. In fact it falls flat when they start relying on groansome jokes etc. LoG's best bits is when they introduce jokes over a wider narrative.

Does it have to be loaded with jokes? Can comedy just be dark or satirical? Does it even need to be called "comedy"?

The first series was funny though, the Halloween special and the first ep weren't particularly. Might just be a blip admittedly.

I see it as a new direction. They like it being less about jokes and have gone straight to the core of their idea imo.

OTM - I think they're slowly easing us into the idea that TV comedy can be deeper than quickfire gags.

It's not just there. Chris Lilley's new show has just started going out here and the single biggest criticism is that it lacks gags.

what's that called? I love Summer Heights High.

Angry Boys.

It doesn't have to be about gags but for it to be comedy is still actually has to be funny.

"you're right, it is funny - but it doesn't make us laugh" /bizarronathanbarley

Hmmm... this series isn't quite as brilliant as the first, but I did laugh at the Mr Jelly/Tealeaf phone conversation:

"Eh Teabags, 'ows it dangling?"
"Yer what?"
"Y'know - the.. shizzle?"
"Can you speak normally please"
"Oh, thanks"

It lost half its audience in three weeks.

I still think it's pretty awesome. Creepy librarian and creepy Carrie rip-off are entertaining me. Why do you think people are switching off?

Not sure, but I lost interest after the first episode this year. It wasn't any worse or any less interesting, it just... I don't know.

It's certainly a slow burner, and the plot is all over the place, but this last week it seemed that the various strands are being tied together in a rewarding way.

Also, cosign on what was said upthread about comedy without any jokes. I always end up watching this back to back with that Stewart Lee show in iplayer, so I guess I'm primed for comedy without jokes.

The problem is less that it's "comedy without jokes" and more that it's comedy that isn't funny.

I think this might be the factor that isn't endearing me to this series as much as the last one. I know I was trying to defend it earlier, but there was a considerable lack of funny in the last episode.

I love how, even since LOG S1, their sketches and characters all seem like the premises to potential horror/shocker movies - a man who is kept as a scarecrow for cheating with the farmer's wife, a young fella who is kept against his will in a house by a cleanliness-obsessed couple.

I also liked in the last episode how they had a gay character unwillingly kissing a straight woman, but it was actually a drag scene. Same as LOG were the first to do a naked cross-dressing scene, and also the time they go to a gender-bending party, so you had men dressed as women dressed as men in a sex scene.

Yeh, it wasn't as funny, but as I say, I'm still enjoying it, and I'm still finding it interesting, but I don't think I find it especially funny, even when they drop in a terrible pun to remind you that its a comedy - "nazi-bay".

I guess it's what you're talking about, that weird intersection between normality and irrationality, which I suppose is why there's all these Lynchian nods everywhere, most explicitly in the silent singer. The drag adds to this sense of things not being quite right, of characters hiding a whole fucked-up identity behind their everyday existance. See also Lomax=Tony Hancock, Librarian being a bit gone-wrong, that woman marrying someone but not marrying them etc.

Also it feels like they're just trying too hard now.

I hope that's not the end of Silent Singer. Would love it if they had some sort of Silence of the Lambs type thing going on with the librarian.

I'm still enjoying it. Although one of the things I liked most about the first series (of Psychoville) was the "live" episode and the musical number because they didn't really need to be in there, but they did it anyway and it was great. Agree about the silly puns letting it down a bit- and would add Debbie's dumbness to that, last season her dumb jokes were awesome, like "winter beach" - they need more of that rather than just 'Is that a K or an H?'.

Season finale this week - shame it doesn't have a seventh episode. This series feels like it's only just getting going though. Think some of the story-telling could have been a little more succinct. The Silent Singer guy, great as he is, did basically the same thing for the first three episodes.

Much prefer this to the first series - less sketch-based, more plot-driven, more sinister, still makes me laugh out loud (mostly Mr Jelly and the old woman), though missing a set-piece as good as the Rope episode.

I don't think it's as good as the first, it's a bit all over the place and there are a lot of cheesy jokes. It's still kind of brilliant, however. So lovingly made, and so unlike anything else. The amiable Scottish assassin is a great piece of casting and deserves a mention.

Oh, and was very sad to see Tealeaf go.

New Shearsmith/Pemberton thing starting soon:

http://www.comedy.co.uk/guide/tv/inside_no_9/

horror europa with mark gatiss toninght bbc4

Watching it now. This Daughters of Darkness looks good.

I have never seen this show but I am currently staying in Hadfield where it was filmed

Avoid the local shops. They're for locals.

Don't use the butchers.

clicked to see if this was about Fripp's new wave band