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THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMAN'S APOCALYPSE

'Welcome to Royston Vasey - You'll Never Leave".

On Channel 4 on Friday 28 December 2007 is the premiere of the League of Gentleman's big screen finale, Apocalpyse, to the characters from the TV series.

The forbidding road sign that 'welcomes' visitors to England's weirdest town sees a reverse flow for some of the population. They learn that their creators, Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith and Jeremy Dyson plan to stop writing the series and thus end their fictional lives. Mad butcher Hilary Briss (Gatiss), Herr Lipp (Pemberton) and Geoff (Shersmith) set out on a desperate mission to London to confront their creators and sabotage their latest effort, a feature film called The King's Evil , by infiltrating and disrupting the shoot. Directed by Steve Bendelack (who also directed the TV series), this hysterical conceit also sees appearances from other Royston Vasey residents, including Mickey Michaels, Pauline Campbell-Jones and Papa Lazarou.

Rather like A Cock and Bull Story , the film-within-a-film-within-a-film plot works in its favour. If there is a drawback for the fans of the TV series, it is that some of the most popular characters only have brief appearances before the demented trio leave Royston Vasey for the scriptwriters' London offices. But that's more than compensated for by seeing them confront their creators as well as invading The King's Evil , with Bernard Hill as William of Orange and Victoria Wood as his wife Mary. And, of course, the film wouldn't be complete without the stop-motion monster that's straight out of Ray Harryhausen's imagination.

Director: Steve Bendelack
Writers: Jeremy Dyson, Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith
Cast: Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith, Michael Sheen, Danielle Tilley

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