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Introduction...

They've been described as 'comedy's new macabre shock jocks', but Steve Pemberton, Mark Gatiss, Reece Shearsmith and Jeremy Dyson insist they only want to entertain each other. The League of Gentlemen were first noticed at Edinburgh in 1996 and scooped the prestigious Perrier Award the following year. Their first BBC show was Radio 4's On The Town With The League Of Gentlemen, and now they're about to unleash the freakish inhabitants of Royston Vasey - Barbara the transsexual taxi driver, Mr Chinnery the lethal vet and other bizarre folk - on BBC-2. Here writer Jeremy Dyson and actor Steve Pemberton discuss their rather interesting take on the world.

What is the real location of Royston Vasey? (Mark Bertenshaw, Kingston upon Thames)
Steve: Royston Vasey is an amalgam of all horrible little northern towns that we knew from growing up in that region. It is actually a place called Hadfield in Derbyshire.

I'm from Darwen in Lancashire, and it is exactly like Royston. Is Royston based on a real place? (Michael, Bristol)
Steve: I was born in Blackburn, Lancashire, which is next to Darwen. When we were scouting for places we wanted to find somewhere isolated and surrounded by bleak countryside, and to have a feeling about it that something wasn't quite right. Three friends recommended Darwen, but we never got that far - Bacup was the furthest we went into Lancashire. Bacup was our hot favourite, but it was too frightening - when we arrived there was this cartoon drunk with a bottle shaking his fist at us. Bacup in real life was worse than Royston Vasey.

Were the local people friendly?
Steve:The people who lived there were coming out with cups of tea. They heard a rumour that Neil Morrissey (of Men Behaving Badly) was going to be in it. When they found out that he wasn't, they took their tea back.

Where do you get your ideas from for people like Edward and Tubbs, and the Restart worker? (David Hooson, Harrogate)
Steve: Most of them come from a real person. Reece (Shearsmith) was on a Restart Course for a week, and he couldn't believe how patronising this woman was. She told them to have a wash, 'Because you can't go into an interview stinking, now can you?' Edward and Tubbs came from when we went into a little gift shop in a place near Brighton. The woman behind the counter was in an immediate state of terror, that four young men could come into her shop. We were quite angry that we could inspire such a reaction when we were completely innocent.
Jeremy: I got the idea for Val and Harvey Denton after I had a difficult stay with relatives. On the one hand they were trying to make me welcome, but at the same time they couldn't bear the fact that their routine was being disrupted. There were several incidents that were excruciating - I got the lock wrong on the door, for example, so someone was locked out.

How far do you take your comedy - do you ever have to stop yourselves going too far?
Jeremy: I don't think we have pulled back. In fact we do the opposite and encourage each other. What drives us, is going for the laughs. If something seems extreme it's not because we want to be extreme but because we think it's funny. Episode one is actually quite tame - it gets worse by episode six. We were fortunate at the BBC because no one at any stage said, 'You can't do that.'

What's so funny about torturing animals?
Steve: We didn't torture any animals. None of them were harmed at all. Jeremy, you wrote those sketches (laughs).
Jeremy: Well, that dog was put down very humanely. If they are referring to the scene where the dog was dragged behind the car, it's made up, it's not real! Of course it's cruel humour but it's funny, and I can't see where any harm could come from it. It's interesting, because in the first episode we murder two people, and only one dog gets killed, and we knew if we were going to get complaints, they would be about the dog.

How do you think up your jokes?
Steve: Sometimes you need a joke to end a scene or sketch, and you sit down, and very soberly and cold-bloodedly think of a joke. That is very difficult. We had to do it with the opening scene on the train, when we needed a joke to get people in. But we tend to enjoy writing about things that have already made us laugh. It's much better not to think too much about the humour. Ronnie Corbett said a very good thing, 'Comedy evaporates when you wax lyrical about it.'

Any chance of touring with Chubby Brown?
Jeremy: Royston Vasey is Chubby Brown's real name. There is no special significance to it, except that it sounds funny, it sounds like a slightly odd northern town. We've never met Chubby, but I've got a horrible feeling that we might get a call from him.

How many characters are you going to leave out from the live shows?
Steve: It kind of chooses itself. In a live show we can do anything - go back in time, or to a different country. We had to whittle it down to people who can legitimately either live in or visit Royston Vasey. We couldn't do a number of our favourite characters - Herr Lipp, the German exchange teacher from Duisberg, and then there's an actress called Pamela, who we didn't feel was right. Once we've established it, maybe we can bring them in. Then Mr Ingleby from the radio show is a radio joke. He's the tiny shopkeeper, but you never quite know how tiny he is. He couldn't transfer to TV.

There is amazing detail in the show - how do you get it so perfect?
Jeremy: That is the magic of telly. To make Harvey Denton's toad vivarium, we had a brilliant designer and photographer. It was just metal filing shelves, a job lot of cheap plastic tanks, and about 16 hired toads. They put in different sizes of lampshade to make the room look a lot deeper, and used a very wide-angle lens. They only built one side, and built up the other side on a computer. By the end, it looks like it cost a fortune - we were amazed when we saw it. Actually, we've always liked paying attention to detail. The inside of the village shop is full of stuff - they found a shop-load of 1950s sanitary towels, and there's a shelf full of about 30 nodding dogs. Wonderful.

Who are your favourite comedians?
Steve: I think the funniest thing on TV is the Larry Sanders Show. I love Alan Bennett, Victoria Wood, Reeves and Mortimer. They are all the best at what they do. Then there are other things: we all love horror films.
Jeremy: We all share the same taste, which I suppose is what brought us together.

Do you use the Internet much? Have you got any favourite sites?
Steve: I'm afraid I'm completely ignorant of the Internet, but I'm going to learn, this year.
Jeremy: My parents are online so I do look at it for hours. The best site I ever found was a Chris Morris site (Glebe's Thrift Funnel) that had some brilliant stuff on it, a great long interview with Peter Baynham (of Friday Night Armistice), and transcribed episodes of Brass Eye and On The Hour. I was very impressed with that. Then one day I typed in my own name and found reviews of a book I wrote (Bright Darkness - The Lost Art Of The Supernatural Horror Film). One was quite good and the other was a devastating attack on the book, so I wish I hadn't found it now!

What advice do you have for anyone wanting to get into comedy?
Jeremy: If you want to do it badly enough, anything is possible. When we started out I would not have believed this week would have happened, that our programme would have been on telly. Don't believe you can't do it, because you can.
Steve: Work hard. Our big break was a mental one, deciding we would put on a weekly show. Take the longer view: don't care about the immediate results because you're learning all the time.

The locals...

Pauline The sadistic Restart Officer. Obsessed with pens	Mickey Youthful jobseeker. Also really really dim	Ross Undercover inspector who caused Paulines downfall
Tubbs A bit inbred, runs a shop. Likes you to be local	Dr Chinnery Lethal vet. In his hands any pet is destined for the butcher	Edward Tubbs's brutal, stranger- burning husband
Harvey Denton Very fond indeed of toads. Not fond of dirty habits	Val Denton Harvey's other half. Mother of scary twins	Judee As posh housewives go, Judee Levenson takes the biscuit
Barbara Poignant and heroic transsexual cab driver	Hilary Briss Speaking of butchers, Mr Briss. Sinister is the word	Geoff Embittered gun-wielding businessman