I can’t for the life of me recall how stunned I was when I first rested my eyeballs in the direction of the television when The League of Gentlemen first aired. I’m willing to bet it was similar to watching the opening moments of last night’s Psychoville (BBC Two, Thursday, 18 June, 10pm). Within seconds of the opening, I was impressed with how classy the whole thing looked and got an almost immediate laugh, mixed with that feeling of a goose walking over my grave. Brrrhahahaeeek. Psychoville has clearly been festering in Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton’s collective wrongs for a while. Treading the line between curious, fun and something slap bang between the toytown horror of Tim Burton and the seedy sinisterdom of Stephen King. Strapping in for this ride is going to be very odd indeed.

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Psychoville definitely feels like the solo LP to League of Gentleman’s group effort, which is no bad thing. There’s a lot of similarities between the shows, yet this new effort is definitely different enough to warrant renewed interest.

One thing that feels very LoG is the mix of characters. We’ve got Dawn French playing something between Pauline from the job centre and her portrayal as the Kathy Bates in the spoof of Misery. She’s all ticks, unhinged and, instead of being oddly attached to pens, it’s a doll of a baby.

Then we’ve got Mr Jelly, the most unsettling character in the show (thus far… there’s lots of time for them all to vie for grimness), who is part Papa Lazaru, part Rab C Nesbitt. One of the opening gambits from Mr Jelly was: “I’m Harold Shipman. Who the f*ck do you think I am?” Nicotine stained, his act was to change his prosthetic hand like the end baddie off Enter the Dragon. Instead of deadly claws, it’s lipstick and rusty combs. Absolutely terrifying and really rather funny. Although, it’s fair to say that you’re never sure why you’re laughing half the time.

Same can be said for the disturbing mother and son combo. I somehow got a laugh when she ‘tucked’ her clearly disturbed son ‘in’ a bit too much. It’s a laugh that pops out before you can do anything about it. It’s too late. They’ve already got you before you can think. This pukety sexual tension is mixed with eczema, Bontempi organ and serial killer trivia. Not to mention a scene with ‘F*CK PIG’ written in excrement on a wall and the line: “Sorry mum. I did a bad murder.”

It doesn’t get any weirder than that does it? Well, this is Psychoville we’re talking about here. Looking back at my notes, I’d written “Lovelorn telekinetic porn dwarf“. There’s a sentence I never thought I’d ever write.

Fans of League of Gentlemen will love the creeped out edge and illicit laughs, that’s for sure. They’ll also be ready to strap in to the long haul to see how it all pans out, which is definitely not clear after the opening bow… but this show certainly has enough character of its own, and as such, doesn’t feel like a cheapo rip-off of LoG.

This is a keeper. This is already a cult hit. I can’t wait for it to really hit stride.