Psychoville

Psychoville is the latest creation for the BBC (UK) from 2 of the writers and stars of black comedy The League of Gentlmen; Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton.

As in TLoG Shearsmith and Permberton take on the majority of the roles, dressing up as both male and female, with the welcome addition of Dawn French to the cast.

The 7 part series is set in 5 towns around the UK where 5 unconnected people all receive a letter from an unknown source reading ‘’I know what you did’’ and later ‘’You killed her’’. All seem appropriately disturbed by the letters but, as yet, the viewer and the characters are unaware as to who has written the letter.

Mr Jelly is a hook handed, foul-mouthed childrens entertainer who specialises in ‘’Keeping kids quiet’’ with his act of the bag of 100 hands (it’s actually 16, but as he points out ‘’kids can’t count’’. He is often mistaken or beaten to jobs by his rival, Mr Jolly much to his dismay.

Oscar Lomax is a blind old millionaire who lives alone in a large house with very few possessions. He collects and deals in commodoties (or soft toys to you and me). He is chasing the elusive limited edition Snappy the Crocodile and, with the aid of his home help, Tealeaf, when the toy appears on Ebay he might well have a chance…

David Sowerbuts lives with his mother, Maureen in a dingy flat in London. He likes murderers. A lot. So much that he could possibly be acting out his own copycat killings much to the shame of his mother. The relationship between David and Maureen is questionable and inappropriate at the best of times.

Robert Greenspan is a telekinetic pantomime dwarf currently starring in a production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves where he has fallen in love with Debbie, who plays Snow White. Robert has previously starred in a number of midget porn films. Is this what the letter is about? Will Debbie ever feel the same about him?

Joy Aston is a midwife. A brutally honest and disturbing midwife, who enjoys sharing the gruesome and painful side of childbirth with her ante-natal classes. She secretly treats her demonstration doll, Freddie, as he real son.

Alongside the programme the writers and production company have cleverly developed websites and YouTube accounts for the appropriate characters, as well as an interactive experience where you too can receive ‘’blackmail’’ which asks you to find information about the characters using the online sources to keep quiet about a secret of yours.

The glory of this programme so far is certainly the return of dark humour to the BBC. And by dark I mean your face is smiling and laughing but your brain is screaming at you to look away.

I’m looking forward to the rest of this series and can’t recommend this highly enough to old Leaguers and new-blood alike.