The League of Gentlemen: Series 03 (2002)

Originally telecast by BBC2 from September 26 through October 24, 2002, Season three of the dizzily irreverent British sitcom The League of Gentlemen consists of six half-hour episodes. As was the case in the BBC radio series On the Town that preceded it, the TV version takes place in the bizarre provincial town of Royston Vasey, with all principal characters played by Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, and Reece Shearsmith. Breaking with a tradition established in earlier seasons, the third-year episodes do not include the words "Royston Vasey" in their titles. In the opener, "The Lesbian and the Monkey," disgraced parole officer Pauline (Pemberton) is reunited with her simian flunkey Mickey, while local curmudgeon Peter Foot (Shearsmith) rehearses his own funeral. Later episodes include "The One-Armed Man Is King," in which Joke Shop owner Lance (Gatiss) undergoes an illegal arm transplant; "Turn Again Geoff Tipps," in which the recently laid-off title character (actually Pauline in drag, and now played by Shearsmith) pursues a spectacularly unsuccessful career as a stand-up comic; "The Medusa Touch," unexpectedly highlighted by an odyssey of "auto-erotic discovery" for hoteliers Alvin (Gatiss) and Sunny (guest star Christine Furness); "Beauty and the Beast: Or, Come Into My Parlour," mostly set at a massage emporium called "Spit and Polish"; and finally, "How the Elephant Got Its Trunk" -- which, needless to say, bears no resemblance whatsoever to the same-named Rudyard Kipling story. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi