The League of Gentlemen is a quartet of
British dark comedy writer–performers, formed in 1995 by
Jeremy Dyson,
Mark Gatiss,
Steve Pemberton and
Reece Shearsmith. The
television programme for which they are best known, although officially labelled a
sitcom, was initially more
sketch-based, linked together by their common setting: the fictional
village of
Royston Vasey, based on the town of
Alston, Cumbria and set somewhere in the north of England. The show contains elements of
horror. The first series aired on
BBC Two in 1999 and follows the lives of dozens of the town's bizarre
inhabitants, played by Gatiss, Pemberton and Shearsmith in a number of guises and make-up. The television series was filmed mainly in
Hadfield but also features
Glossop,
Gamesley,
Hope Valley (
Derbyshire),
Mottram (
Greater Manchester),
Marsden and
Todmorden (
West Yorkshire).