League of Gents stick with movies

The League of Gentlemen are unlikely to return to TV.

Star Mark Gatiss says their movie brings the story of Royston Vasey to a neat end, so it would be a backwards step to return to the small screen.

“The new film rounds off Royston Vasey rather nicely,” he said. “The BBC have asked us to do another series. I feel it would have to be very different."

The team, which also includes Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith and writer Jeremy Dyson,  instead hope to follow in the footsteps of Monty Python, and move permanently into film.

"If the film takes off we will want to do another movie," Mark told Teletext.

He said that the ambitious story told in the film "deserves to be a movie rather than a TV special. Royston Vasey is facing an apocalypse. We travel extradimensionally to the 17th Century."

"We were very keen early on to avoid the usual spin off pitfalls of doing something like just taking the characters to Spain."

"We wanted to give it more room to breathe. We are very proud of the screenplay. It has always been a very cinematic series."

The movie, which finished its six-week shoot last week, is also called Royston Vasey, and is expected to be released next year.

Meanwhile, in a separate interview on the comprehensive League Of Gentlemen fan website, the team say they are keen to get back on the road again for a new tour.

Published: 22 Nov 2004