The League Of Gentlemen's Apocalypse

Anyone who has been following the League Of Gentlemen over the years knows that when you tune in for half an hour every week, you are faced with the funniest characters (Papa Lazarou, Dr Chinnery, Hillary Briss, Tubbs, Edward, etc) that any TV comedy series has ever created.

The beginning of the movie led me to believe that I was about to see an extended version of one of these episodes and, believe me, my little heart lit up like it does on Christmas morning, but after the initial joy and excitement my toys were taken away and I was told that Santa didn't exist and instead I would be forced to watch a film with no more than three of the original characters and a plot that made as much sense as putting five pence pieces into a cake that I intended to eat.

Apocalypse follows the exploits of the local people, as Armageddon hits Royston Vasey and some of the residents realise that in order to save the town from destruction they must get the wordsmiths (Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith, Mark Gatiss and Jeremy Dyson) to write some new material, so that they can live on.

The characters that make it through are Herr Lipp (who isn't nearly as funny as he could have been), Geoff Tipps (who isn't really funny in the series, but shines here) and Hilary Briss (great to see him back). They must find the writers and force them to produce new stuff and, as you can guess, along the way things go slightly bonkers as Geoff finds himself in the 17th century, Lipp becomes a family man and Hilary trades in his special stuff for an axe.

The League members who appear in the film are played brilliantly, but there are not enough of them and the better ones (Tubbs, Edward, Papa Lazarou) are given only a few minutes screen time to make way for other, less popular characters. Where is Pop? Or the Dentons? Or Stella and Charlie?

I wanted so much to like this movie, but was sadly disappointed half way through, hoping against hope that it would get better, but it didn't. The League deserves to be judged by its fans. This one felt that they had been fed some dodgy special stuff.