25 years of League of Gentlemen

In honour of the 25th anniversary of the show, we speak with Jeremy Dyson and John Mettrick to reminisce about the production of the show and talk about all things Royston Vasey.

Monday the 11th of January 1999 was a special moment for the history of Hadfield and the surrounding areas – this was the first time that the towns had been featured in a major television series, and that evening the British Isles were introduced to the fictional town of Royston Vasey, set in Hadfield.

The first episode of League of Gentlemen aired that evening at 9:30 pm and marked the start of a series that would span for four seasons, the last of which being only three episodes long as part of the 20th anniversary of the show.

The show was acted in and written by the four writers Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith, Mark Gatiss and Jeremy Dyson, with Jeremy featuring in only cameo roles and not acting as one of the major characters in the series.

So, in celebration of the show reaching its silver anniversary, we talked with Jeremy Dyson about the anniversary in an exclusive interview about all things League of Gentlemen.

Talking initially about how Hadfield was decided upon for the location, Jeremy told us “it was a very long search.”

The search was lead by Gemma Rodgers the associate producer, and Jeremy said “she was in charge of the location hunt, so she was going out looking everywhere from 1998 until 1999 scouting for locations. Hadfield was the last place on her list and the reason she chose it was because when you stood in the high street whichever way you pointed the camera it had the moors in the background above the town, so it had this traditional high street and these amazing vistas all around. It was down to her persistence, and Steve Bendelack who was leading the visual side of things. Essentially, it was a visual choice.”

Once the decision was made on the location, filming began and the first series was released to the public in 1999. This was the first time that a wider audience across the nation would have been introduced to the town of Hadfield, which was posing as Royston Vasey. The unusual selection of characters the series introduced us to were also representative of the fictional Royston Vasey area, which raised the question of how the people of real-life Hadfield felt about the representations of local townsfolk.

 This is something that Jeremy touched upon in the interview, saying “as for the content of the show, I don’t remember everyone having a problem with it. We loved being there and when we went back for the second and third series it was lovely being back in Hadfield, like a second home or when you go back on holiday and have that familiarity of a place. The thing I really liked was having an excuse to be back up North, as we are all from the North but were based in London, so it was great being able to go back for 6 or 7 weeks.”

With a good relation garnered between the locals and the crew behind the show the characters returned to Hadfield over the next few years, putting Hadfield firmly onto the map for tourists to come and look at.

One particular location that featured heavily in the first and second series and became a staple of League of Gentlemen lore is Hillary Briss and Sons butchers, the butchers famed for producing “special stuff” meat. We are first introduced to the butchers through owner Hillary Briss, who is seen as mysterious and The real owner of the shop is none other than butcher John Mettrick, who runs Mettricks Butchers of Glossop. At the time of filming, Mettricks was based in Hadfield, which gave Jeremy and the team a perfect location for the Hillary and Sons Butchers. Jeremy talked about Mettricks fondly, saying “I remember Mettrick’s butchers having paper bags done with Hillary on, I laughed when I saw the paper bags! They were all very open to us filming and using the shop.”

Below is a photo of the original site that was used and the site of the butchers in its' new location

John Mettrick is still the owner of Mettricks, and it is now located on Glossop high street. He remembers League of Gentlemen well, and talked about how the show impacted his shop. "It was a lot of effort for us with League of Gentlemen as we had never done anything with TV before. We didn’t realize how much they would take over and we needed to remind them that we still needed to operate as that, but we worked it all between us with some late nights with the filming, and setting up some meats for some shots but we got there in the end. The actors and the cast were all lovely, we worked very hard with them to make sure the Hillary Bliss part of the show went well.”

Despite how much the crew used the shop and the stresses involved in it, John told us that it did impact the business in many ways. “It did bring notoriety to Hadfield in the short term and to the shop,” John told us, “on occasion League of Gentleman fans would come into the shop with taped up noses and have their pictures taken outside and that. We also did special sausages in reference to the special stuff! We tried to take advantage of it as much as we could but it was hard work for us as well. We had to be careful as people wanted to come in and get meat still, so it was a balance to keep customers and the film crew happy at the time.”

However, the shop also faced some setbacks due to the filming. John highlighted one example, telling us “when we won the Best Butchers award we went down to London for it, but all they wanted to talk about was League of Gentlemen which takes away from us as butchers. Nowadays, people still remember but it doesn’t get mentioned as much, and our notoriety is from our award-winning farm to table produce.”

Many other locations across the Hadfield area were transformed, but perhaps one of the most famous locations from the show was not filmed in the Hadfield area, rather Marsden. This was The Shop, which was ran by the ever-fearful Tubbs and Edwards. Since the first series the characters became staples in the show and the location made up key parts of the show.

Jeremy recalled the location, saying “the local shop is the one bit away from the High Peak – it is over the border in Calderdale. We filmed that on Marsden Moor above Huddersfield, and we would go over to Marsden for three or four days. We had to take everything offroad in land rovers and set it all up. It was always freezing cold throughout the year, and I remember night shoots we would be stood there in the rain freezing. But it was all such fun.”

Twenty-five years on, the cast and the local people of Hadfield have moved on to other parts of their lives. But the legacy still lives on and a bit of League of Gentlemen lives on throughout the nation, as summed up by Jeremy. “I have encountered younger writers and comedians that tell me that the show had an impact on them. It’s quite hard to judge from the inside what the impact is, it is only occasionally you get a glimpse at it really. But I think the real thing for all of us came when we did the tour five years ago, we really appreciated that there was a sizeable audience out there that still really love the show, remember it and feel very affectionately about it. That was such a lovely thing to go back to and see that that was the case, as you really do not know. It was a show that held its place and in some people’s hearts, and there are young people who have since discovered it, so it is a privilege to see it.”

It is clear that the show lives on in both young and old fans minds, and this local paper for local people is happy to report on the legacy of the League.