The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse

The film was apparently spawned from an idea one of the writers had when he 'saw' one of his creations in a supermarket. The inhabitants of Royston Vasey head into 'our' world to persuade the writers not to stop writing about them and thus destroy their world.

If that sounds a bit too serious, don't be put off. Within the first few minutes we get: Bernice (the vile female vicar) letting rip at an unfortunate penitent during confession; Chinnery (the vet who inadvertently destroys every animal he touches) attempting to collect semen from a giraffe; Mickey (thick beyond belief) being, ah, thick; and Tubbs (inbred sister-wife and local shopkeeper) being sweet as ever - but still disgusting.

Some of the regular characters are missing, but a new idea by the Gents introduces some 16th-Century characters - and we have the Gents themselves in the action too. If you're new to The League of Gentlemen, this is an easy introduction and a lot of fun. If you're a long-standing fan, this has everything you've come to expect - including the joys of Jeremy Dyson spotting.

All told, it's got the same faintly surreal humour that's the hallmark of the series, plus some moments of quite touching 'introspection'. Herr Lipp, for example, maintains a gentle dignity on learning that he's regarded by his creators as a 'one-joke character'. While most of the characters stay as they are, some develop in unexpected ways that are perfectly natural when they happen.

This film is a 'swan song' for Royston Vasey, but it's also a showcase for the Gents who prove that (gasp!) they can write other stuff - and it can be very funny. (But you knew that anyway.)

There are two ways to turn a TV series into a film.

The first, most common, and least successful, is to basically make a feature-length TV episode- see the disasters of the Steptoe & Son movie. The second is to do something else- something quite different, à la Monty Python.

Thankfully, the creators of the cult TV series have gone for the second option, and they've come up with something unique, clever and funny- it couldn't feel less like a TV episode.

Try to get your head around this- the writers, playing themselves, are confronted by their Royston Vasey alter-egos, played, of course, by them, and told to continue writing the series, otherwise apocalypse will befall the village.

High-concept, contrived and easy to screw up? Yes, but somehow they managed to pull it off. Not for every taste, perhaps, and the ending does drag, but fans will be delighted, and it might even win over the uninitiated.

Being a massive fan of the TV series (even to the extent of visiting Hadfield where its filmed!) I was waiting for this to come out from the second I heard about it. Perhaps my expectations were to high, but literally 30 mins into the film and I was thinking 'what have they done?'. Some of the best characters such as Tubbs n' Edward, Pauline n' Mickey n' the bizarre Papa Lazarou had about 10 minutes screen time between them, instead a lot of the film is taken up with the real life creators (aka the league of gentlemen) and some rather poor characters from their new 17th century story. I think what made the TV series so great was all the characters of Royston Vasey, this however did not feature that many in any great detail, and wasn't even really filmed in Royston Vasey for the most part. The whole cinema sat in mostly silence throughout the film, the only highlights in my opinion were the usual sexual innuendos from Herr Lipp (the best being his one involving two scouts at the start and their 'purple skins'!).

Based on the weird, wacky and at times wonderful sitcom, League Of Gentlemen's Apocalypse is a fans delight. I was a fan of the first two series myself, with the third still enjoyable but a little too out there for my liking. You could easily assume that with the Royston Vasey locals hitting the big screen and leaving behind TV boundaries of taste' that the movie would really push the darker aspects out. However the is nothing quite as disturbing as series three's sodomy scene. Of course many sitcoms don't translate all too well to the big screen, but LOG was a sitcom with a real movie atmosphere, from the style it was made to all the references, it truly felt like a long movie split into six segments each series. Similarly Spaced's unique style worked superbly for it's translation to the big screen in Shaun Of The Dead. This movie is very filmic thankfully with possibly the most strange plot ever to grace the silver screen. The four writers add plenty of film reference with little nods from everything from The Shining, Labyrinth to the old HarryHuasen films. This is in many ways a whacked out smacked up version of kids favourite The Neverending Story. With the imaginary colliding with the real world.

The plot opens with the scenario that the inhabitants of Royston Vasey, who are alive inside there own little world, like Fantasia in The Neverending Story. When the town of Vasey begins showing signs of the apocalypse, due to the fact that real life writers, Mark, Steve, Reece and Jeremy are not doing any more LOG, a group of the inhabitants must venture into the real world in order to make the writers continue with the LOG otherwise Royston Vasey and its inhabitants will die out. LOG has a great advantage in translating to film and that is the fact it is set in a small universe that is so demented you can do just about anything plot-wise. This film works, it doesn't feel like a half hour skit painfully stretched out. As an example a proposed Friends movie would probably end up being a run of the mill rom-com, far too thin.

As far as being a good film, this is. It's good fun, plenty of gags, while not trying to overload the film with gags. On another impressive note, the film managers to successfully incorporate some softer moments too, in the same way Shaun Of The Dead did. While this film isn't as good as Shaun, it will undoubtedly become a cult classic, even if the theatre I saw this in was shockingly sparse (it was a midday showing though).

As is the case with Brit films it is loaded with cameos including Bernard Hill, Simon Pegg, Peter Kay, and Victoria Wood. The main cast of course are all good, playing a host of their recognised characters, themselves and some new creations. Also co-starring in his Time Bandits villain style is David Warner who has already become a fans favourite amongst those who have seen it. Also the film looks very polished for a budget of only £4.2 million. They have got some great cinematography and sets as well as excellent effects and something I particularly enjoyed was the stop motion monsters, very much a loving homage to the legendary Ray Harryhausen. I personally would love to see another Harryhausen movie. I'm fed up with all the CGI we have now, as much as it is a good tool when used right but I would love to see a film go back to the basics again, and I'm sure others would too.

LOG's Apocalypse is great fun and very nuts. Fans will love this, as will movie enthusiasts. ***1/2

Just saw 'The League of Gentlemen: Apocalypse' at a special screening in Manchester, with Mark Gatiss and Reece Shearsmith of the League in attendance.

At the back was Peter Kay (who has a brief cameo in the film) affectionately heckling at the back during the Q & A session after the film.

The film was complicated (in a good way) and very very funny. It follows Geoff Tipps, Hilary Briss and Herr Lipp as they try and save fictional Rosyton Vasey from the disinterest of their creators.

The League play a wide range of their characters and themselves (or character based on themselves) and are ably supported by the cream of British character and comedy actors such as Bernard Hill, Victoria Wood and David Warner.

Warner is a particular stand out reminding me of his smooth and cutting turn in 'Time Bandits'.

The film swims in and out of various realities and allows some of the denizen's of Rosyton Vasey some space to grow beyond their usual limits of their comedy shtick.

Steve Pemberton's Herr Lipp has a great Bretchian moment near the end of the movie and has to make a decision about his purpose and meaning in life which brings a lump to the throat at an unexpected moment and surprises you with its tender affection for the characters.

This echoes something Mark and Reece said in the Q & A afterwards, that the plot of the league being tired of their famous characters is spurious and that the whole film is really a love letter to them.

For a format that started as a radio character-based sketch show, these guys have really evolved the idea so far as to sustain a movie which takes you on a journey through fiction, 'reality', comedy, tragedy and a pleasing journey for two of the less obvious characters to carry a long form story from their 70 odd existing creations.

The fans of the show will love it. It pays off dedication and attention to detail in spades, the uninitiated may be a little lost, but the joy of the LoG was always the ability to almost instantly tune into their acutely observed characters and take the stylistic leap into farce and expressionistic movie homage.

There are homages a plenty in this one including 'The Shining' and 'La Belle et la Bete', to name but two I spotted and they ably demonstrate their love for cinema and history with a segment in 1690's England that makes perfect sense when you're engaged with the movie.

What can I say, I marvelled, boggled, emoted and snickered throughout and they have definitely pulled off what many have failed at. A successful British TV comedy to cinema translation.

If you've watched and enjoyed 'The League of Gentlemen' in the past, go see it; you will enjoy.

If you haven't, rent/buy a DVD and then go see it.

Well done guys and thanks for the charming and humorous Q & A.