On the Town With the League of Gentlemen

ON THE TOWN WITH THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN is a bizarre black comedy, occasionally bordering on the bawdy, set in a small northern English town called Spent. Each half-hour installment of this 1997 BBC radio show (its success generated a television show) combines seemingly disparate sketches into a comedic whole. Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, and Reece Shearsmith, creators of the series, perform all the various characters with skill and levity. The hilariously weird cast include radio disc jockey Bernice Woodall, whose dulcet tones hide a loathing of everyone; Mr. Chinnery, the local vet with little luck or expertise; and the gravel-voiced Barbara, a taxi driver in the middle of a sex-change procedure. A.B. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine