Hadfield is Royston Vasey

 
 
Region: Buxton
  

A suspect butcher and Burger Me fast food

 
You’ll never leave…

 

The League of Gentlemen DVDThe League of Gentlemen DVD  Royston Vasey novelty snowstormRoyston Vasey novelty snowstorm  Royston Vasey sign with group of peopleRoyston Vasey sign with group of people
 
A suspect butcher, a murderous shopkeeper, Burger Me fast food and a very peculiar nose are just a few of fictional Royston Vasey’s sinister characteristics.
 

Award-winning comedy of the grotesque

The hugely successful, macabre, mock-horror League of Gentlemen created a nightmare – and filmed it in Hadfield.  The League’s show began as an Edinburgh fringe success in 1996.  They graduated to radio soon after, returning to Edinburgh to win the Perrier Award for comedy in 1997.  From radio they moved to television and the rest is award-winning history.
 
Fear is the best insurance money can buy.
 

Catchphrases and characters

England was full of people claiming ‘pens are friends’ and vehemently protecting their ‘precious things’.  To this day, you’ll spot cars sporting the inbred Tattsyrups under words that made it into Cassell’s Dictionary of Catchphrase and the English psyche:  ‘Local shops for local people.’
 
The vast cast of characters were written and played almost entirely by the four gentlemen of the League, with occasional supporting actors drafted in.  Britain was abuzz with the grotesque mysteries of this seedy place and its scrofulous lowlifes or pitifully affected wannabes.  Here was humanity in all our frailty – with a dash of terror thrown in.
 

Visiting Hadfield

For the uninitiated, it’s well worth taking a look at http://www.leagueofgentlemen.co.uk before you visit Hadfield, and getting a feel for what to beware of!  (There’s also advice on how to mould your very own Royston Vasey nose for the trip.)
 
You can pick up leaflets for self-guided walks in the village. Look out for the following landmarks:
 
  • H. Briss and sons butchers
  • Church of the horrible vicar, Bernice
  • Charity shop, but look out for Vinnie Wythenshaw or Renee Calver types: incredibly these characters were based upon real charity shop volunteers the League met when buying props
  • Dole office, commanded by the hideous restart officer Pauline Campbell-Jones, bane of Royston Vasey’s ‘dole-scum’
  • Burger me! fast food bar
  • Attachments dating agency …
 

So who are the League of Gentlemen – and why Royston Vasey?

Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith and Jeremy Dyson began working together in London before taking the League to the Edinburgh Fringe in 1996.  Royston Vasey is a distillation of all that each hated most about growing up in economically depressed small town England in the 1980s.  As for the name?  Royston Vasey is the real name of true blue (= rude) comedian Chubby Brown. 
 

Access and orientation

Accommodation, shops and pubs in the village.  You can pick up Royston Vasey souvenirs and a self-guided walk in the newsagents by the railway station, and the one by the Masons pub.  There’s also a village locations map on the website www.leagueofgentlemen.co.uk   
 

Visit Hadfield by public transport

The rail service to Hadfield isn’t just a local train for local people – visitors can travel direct to Hadfield by train from Manchester and Glossop.  To plan your journey, visit the National Rail website or ring National Rail Enquiries on 08457 484950 or ring Traveline on 0871 200 2233.