The third series of The League of Gentlemen takes the portmanteau horror approach of their Christmas Special and extends it daringly across the entire six episodes. Here, each half-hour instalment is a self-contained story featuring various familiar and less well-known inhabitants of Britain's most accursed town, Royston Vasey. But each individual tale leads--horribly, inevitably--towards a single shocking event, the full circumstances of which are only realised in a final, macabre twist. It's all far too bleak to be called comedy, just too damn funny to be anything else. This is a team who have always defined their own rules, nowhere more boldly than here.

Opening with a funky new theme tune, the six episodes feature--among others--ex-con Pauline and Mickey in a touching tale of transvestisism; Lance the one-armed comedy shop owner yearning for a new limb; foul-tempered Geoff Tipps trying to make it as a stand-up comic in "Lundun"; some eye-popping fetishist behaviour at the local B&B; seedy goings-on in the massage parlour; and, most horrendously of all, the dreaded return of Papa Lazarou. It all proved too much for some viewers--too grotesque, too offbeat, too surreal. Packed with knowing references to obscure movies and filled with the most unpleasant characters ever to grace a "sitcom", this is certainly an uncompromising series, and one that invites fascinated speculation on what dark delights await in their upcoming movie.

On the DVD: The League of Gentlemen, Series 3 two-disc set maintains the high standard of extra features established by the previous series. Here there's more raucous "Local Gossip" with the four gents on the first disc, plus a second disc of insightful background material including: a 30-minute making of documentary by Adam Buxton (of Adam and Joe); a candid video diary from Steve Pemberton; a truly dire magic tutorial from Dean Tavalouris (Reece Shearsmith); Joby Talbot's music score; an interview with costume designer Yves Barre; outtakes and deleted scenes; plus a Mike King Enterprises editing suite, enabling you to muck about with the ending sequence and ruin it completely. -- Mark Walker