Psychoville

There's something in the water in Britain that keeps them pumping out quality comedy- and it's not flouride.

The boys who brought us the frightenly sombre The League of Gentlemen are back with another creation - Psychoville - a half hour long dive into the morbid waters of the twisted human psyche.

Psychoville is inhabited by five characters: a disillusioned children's party clown; a mid-wife who believes her demonstration doll is a real baby; a mummy's boy who is obsessed with serial killers; a blind millionaire who collects stuffed toys; and a dwarf with telekenetic powers. These five characters have one thing in common. They are all being sent anonymous letters with chryptic threats, ie. "I know what you did..."

This show feels very fresh. The sets are laboriously detailled and the make-up is phenomenal. There's no laugh track and there are no helpful "laugh now" pointers. In fact, there's no real story at all. However, the characters are so carefully depicted, so intriguingly bizarre, that you find yourself just wanting to sit back and observe them. The lack of storyline only intensifies the focus on each of the characters. It's of no great matter that you're not observing them do anything in particular. All you know is that you don't want to look away in case you miss something.

We rarely take time to study weirdness. And by study, I don't mean just glancing at it- but sit down, match-sticks-in-the-eyes, let's-wallow-in-this surgical examination. That's what I love that about this show. It's unapologetic in depicting the inelegant, the repulsive and the repugnant. Each character is gruesomely laid out in front of the camera- festering pussy warts and all (figurative of course!). However, by the end of the half hour, having broken the shock and settled into a smooth gentle wallow, you find that there's something incredibly tender and warm about the darkness of Psychoville.

To give some of the characters some authenticity, the writers created youtube profiles for them. Check out David Sowerbutt's effort below. The off-camera interjections by his mum are classic.