What does Mycroft actually do in the government? What’s it like to work with Tom Cruise? And is there any Doctor Who role he hasn’t played? Ask all this and more of the actor and writer
October 2022
100 years of the BBC: decade by decade
Diana makes explosive revelations and Partridge devours the hand that feeds him: 100 years of the BBC, part eight
Steve Coogan’s alter-ego appears, as does Ricky Gervais’s in The Office, while Panorama rocks the royals
April 2022
TV tonight
TV tonight: Diane Morgan crashes The League of Gentlemen cast reunion
Deadpan one-liners cut the tension in the new series of Inside No 9. Plus: tone-deaf singers take to the stage. Here’s what to watch this evening
October 2021
Mark Gatiss: ‘I’m currently very, very ashamed of being English’
The former League of Gentlemen star on his love of low-budget British spinechillers, his loathing of Brexit and a slew of projects opening this winter
October 2020
TV and radio blog
Hammer House of Horror: the twisted suburban tales that inspired Mark Gatiss and more
Its bloody instalments turned provincial towns into places where fear was never far away. 40 years on, it remains one of the creepiest, strangest shows ever shown on British TV
August 2020
'Edinburgh made us!' The stars catapulted to TV fame from the fringe
Lily Savage, The League of Gentlemen, Fleabag and a host of telly sensations started out on tiny stages at the extravaganza. In its absence, who will be next?
June 2020
Netflix pulls The Mighty Boosh and The League of Gentlemen over blackface
Critics call removal of shows from streaming service ‘arbitrary gesture’ that does little to combat racism
December 2019
Lunch with...
Mark Gatiss: ‘We live in an age of popinjays – Rees-Mogg, Johnson – and we fall for it’
The Sherlock writer and actor on his new adaption of Dracula and why apple crumble is the answer to our doom-laden times
November 2018
Saturday interview
Mark Gatiss: ‘The League of Gentlemen was a premonition of Brexit’
After a turn on stage as George III, the co-founder of the League is returning to horror to recreate Dracula for TV. What he finds ‘frightening and debilitating’ now, though, is leaving the EU
August 2018
Autumn arts preview 2018
Dazzling drama: the unmissable theatre, dance and comedy of autumn 2018
The League of Gentlemen review – a brilliantly twisted return to the stage
April 2018
From Lee and Dean to This Country: are UK sitcoms too sentimental?
The current crop of British comedies are peppered with ‘hugging and learning’, but how far can convivial comedy go before it veers into sentimental mush
A date with the devil: Reece Shearsmith reveals source of his inspiration
As The League of Gentlemen prepare a UK tour, the co-creator of the dark comedy describes how a 1920s Swedish horror film ignited his love of black humour
Film blog
Beasts at the box office: why the horror anthology refuses to die
From Dead of the Night to The Field Guide to Evil, multi-story shockers are a cinema staple. The League of Gentlemen’s Jeremy Dyson – co-writer of new anthology Ghost Stories – on why creepshow compendiums are immortal
January 2018
Jump the shark
When good TV goes bad: how The League of Gentlemen became no laughing matter
After two successful seasons, the eccentric sketch show adopted an ambitious concept for the third – at the expense of its best gags
December 2017
Observer TV reviews
The week in TV: Feud: Bette and Joan; Shamed; The League of Gentlemen and more
The League of Gentlemen: did the revival work?
TV review
The League of Gentlemen review – Royston Vasey: just as terrifying as ever
The League of Gentlemen announce 2018 UK tour
October 2017
Ghost Stories review – Martin Freeman and Paul Whitehouse shine in dreamlike spookfest
Co-directed by Andy Nyman and The League of Gentlemen’s Jeremy Dyson, this three-part portmanteau horror turns out a disturbing, atmospheric fable
