Steve Pemberton

A sinister clown with a fake hand, a blind toy-collecting recluse, a midwife besotted with a baby doll - no surprise to learn the creators of this new comedy thriller are The League of Gentlemen's Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton.

"The BBC wanted a family show, but things didn't pan out" admits Reece, 39. "In fact, its more horrible than The League! TV executives kept telling us, 'Dark comedy is out - we want big and funny' but thankfully, BBC bosses liked it."

As with the inhabitants of their previous creation, Royston Vasey, Psychoville is crammed with strange, sinister characters. They have nothing in common, except five of them receive an anonymous black-edged card that reads 'I know what you did...'. However, unlike The League, Reece and Steve play only a few roles, and instead have a starry line-up of regulars and guests, including Dawn French, Janet McTeer and Eileen Atkins.

Reece, who lives in North London with his wife Jane, says his kids - Holly, six and Danny, four - will have to wait a long time before they're allowed to watch his gruesome shows. "They'll have to be at least 35" he laughs, "They call it 'Daddy's silly work'. But I'm draconian about what they see, which is hypocritical because I saw lots of gore as a kid - but then look how I turned out!"

From two of the creators of The League of Gentlemen - Reece Shearsmith & Steve Pemberton - here's a new comedy-thriller that, true to form, delights in horrid grotesquery. The set-up is an old standby - a quintet of apparently unrelated misfits each receives a black-edged letter - but the strength of this opener lies in the gloriously exaggerated characters; a blind recluse, an angry clown, a potty midwife, a serial killer-fixated mummy's boy and a lovelorn dwarf. Ace.

Though made by only two members of The League of Gentlemen, Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, Psychoville is clearly twinned with Royston Vasey. It has the same grotesque characters, the same creepy, dependent relationships. But unlike the League, they're living, more or less, in the real world - the joke, repeatedly, is the clash between the gothic nightmare and the ordinary.

There is a clown whose idea of a "princess party" for a girl is more like a torture party; there are feuding panto dwarves, one of whom has a crush on Snow White; there is an uncomfortable mother and son duo with a worrying knowledge of serial killers. But the scariest of all is played by Dawn French, as a nurse with an obsessive love for her 'baby'. She is what you imagine the truth to be behind those documentaries about people who keep monkeys as children or believe they are married to the Eiffel Tower.

On paper, Psychoville should seem like a retread, but the ongoing mystery - many of the characters are receiving anonymous letters - and some disturbing but genuine laughs keep it compelling.

Beware! These people are in a league of their own

With its wicked and twisted characters and plots, The League of Gentlemen heralded a new era of dark British comedy when it hit TV screens 10 years ago. Now, two League members, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, are back with Psychoville, a creepy comedy featuring a cast of macabre misfits who've each received an anonymous note saying: "I know what you did." Psychoville begins on BBC2 next week. Imogen Carter introduces four of its strangest inhabitants.

In a soul-sapping television tradition of yesteryear, practically every sitcom would do a dire summer special in which the regular characters went to Spain and had unfunny encounters with the locals. Benidorm is like that in every single episode. This mirth-free atrocity about the antics of a gaggle of British oafs staying in the Spanish holiday resort has been running for two series, and returns tonight with an hour-long one-off. Sample japes: Mick (Steve Pemberton) wets himself in a police car, and Madge (Sheila Reid) is kidnapped while hitching a lift to hospital. Strange things, budgets: ITV apparently doesn't have enough money to make more of The South Bank Show, but it does have enough to persist with this twaddle.

Psychoville - Dark side of the loons

Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, the creators of The League of Gentlemen, have conjured up another bizarre bunch of misfits for Psychoville. But, as they tell The Independent, their new horror comedy's inspirations go beyond Royston Vasey.

Psychoville: two Gentlemen in a different League

The League of Gentlemen's Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton will return to BBC2 with 'dark character comedy mystery'.

Preview clip from Psychoville

A new trailer for Psychoville featuring the show's writers - and League of Gentlemen stars - Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton.

First look at Psychoville

You may remember Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith most fondly as Herr Lipp and Papa Lazarou (Hello Daaaaave!), but soon the pair will have a whole host of new characters to imbed in our collective consciousness.

A sitcom that harks back to early-1990s BBC drama Eldorado (basically EastEnderson-Sea). Take a cast of crazy characters and put them in a Spanish resort. In the case of Benidorm, add some intentional jokes. And stand well back.

The idea had promise, but no amount of real Spanish sunshine is going to disguise a certain lack of conviction from its makers.

The trouble is, it's hard to know whether we're supposed to be laughing at or with these people. Are we with the posh lot stuck in package holiday hell? Or do we love an allinclusive deal and wonder why so many of the jokes are on us?

That said, Benidorm does have its genuine sunny spells. There are some great exchanges between members of Steve Pemberton's chaotic extended family. And Johnny Vegas's stunt diving is a thing of awe.

Baywatch it ain't. But despite the unfit body count, it's still able to raise a smile or two.