Royston Vasey or Little Britain? Quiz

Answer: Royston Vasey

Pauline Campbell-Jones is one of the most completely developed characters in the "out there" British comedy, 'The League of Gentlemen'. Pauline's job is to run sessions at Royston Vasey's job centre with the aim of helping unemployed residents find and secure work. Well, the reality of the situation was that these in-person sessions were really all about Pauline and that the jobseekers were simply her audience.

"It's half past nine. Time for men, men with jobs, to go to work! Other men stay in bed 'til dinner time, watching Tots TV, thinking about how worthless and pathetic they are...Good morning Jobseekers!". Pauline's terrible treatment of the jobseekers - through comments such as this - is explored and, without any spoilers, the quote below starts to give an insight into how Pauline came to be:

"Pens! They're the best friends you can have. Everything I know about people I learned from pens. If they don't work, you shake 'em. If they still don't work, you chuck 'em away, bin them!"

Pauline Campbell-Jones is one of the most brilliantly crafted characters from any British TV sketch show. Timeless.

Answer: Little Britain

Marjorie Dawes organised meetings for Fatfighters (a fictionalised version of WeightWatchers) and was one of the more regularly seen characters across the many series of 'Little Britain'. Marjorie has much in common with Pauline Campbell-Jones from 'The League of Gentlemen' including the fact that she was incredibly rude to those who attended her meetings. Marjorie suggested that the best way to lose weight is to eat "dust" but failing that you could follow the "Half the Calories" plan. Marjorie explained:

"With Fatfighters Half the Calories plan, you can enjoy all your favourite foods like cake and chocolate. Just cut it in half and it's only half the calories. And because it is half the calories, you can eat twice as much!"

Answer: Royston Vasey

Mark Gatiss puts in an excellent performance as Hilary Briss, a sinister butcher who owns a store in Royston Vasey. His store stocked the sort of produce that you would expect to see in any quality butchers but the residents of Royston Vasey didn't seem to be frequenting the store for his chicken breasts or sirloin steaks. Nope, customers wanted Hilary's "special stuff". Quite what this mystery product consisted of was never revealed but whatever it was proved highly addictive.

Answer: Little Britain

Andy Pipkin is an instantly recognisable 'Little Britain' character who takes advantage of his friend, Lou Todd, by pretending to be disabled. Essentially, Andy made out that he required a wheelchair to get around but when Lou wasn't looking, Andy would run off to get up to mischief such as jumping into a tank at the local aquarium to swim with the marine life contained therein.

Mr Pipkin is associated with a number of quotes but perhaps the two most memorable are "I want that one" and "I don't like it" which would often be used in conjunction with one another.

Answer: Royston Vasey

Judee Levinson (Reece Shearsmith) was the Hyacinth Bucket of Royston Vasey. Mrs. Levinson employed a regular cleaner, Iris (Mark Gatiss), and the two characters constantly engaged in one-upmanship; the comments exchanged between them became increasingly vicious as time went on. Towards the end of the second series it became apparent that both Judee and Iris derived mutual enjoyment from this spiteful game and were keeping score all along! Eric Berne's book 'Games People Play' springs to mind.

Answer: Royston Vasey

Harvey Denton, brilliantly acted by Steve Pemberton, was the archetypal eccentric Brit. This resident of Royston Vasey was completely obsessed with toads and took great pride in the substantial collection of toads that he kept in his basement (his 'amphibarium'). Through the over-the-top use of facial warts, the character was even made to look like a toad! When Harvey's nephew, Benjamin, came to visit, the toad obsession and domestic restrictions that were imposed upon him led Benjamin to wish that he had never bothered to return to Royston Vasey!

Maximising the value of the toad joke, the writers came up with a darkly comical interchange that involved Harvey and his wife, Val, telling a story to Benjamin:

Harvey - "I remember the whispered comments, 'Here comes Harvey Toadface.' 'Quick hide, Toadface Denton is coming!"

Val - "And that was his mother and father."

Answer: Little Britain

Daffyd Thomas, played by Matt Lucas, liked to portray himself as "the only gay in the village" but the exploits of this outrageously camp and serially offended character were made all the more funny for the fact that practically everybody in the Welsh village of Llanddewi Brefi had seemingly taken an interest in members of the same sex at one time or another. "I'll have a Bacardi and coke please, Myfanwy!"

Answer: Little Britain

Emily Howard, played by David Walliams, is an example of a personality from 'Little Britain' that hasn't really aged as well as some of the others and it could be argued that the characterisation of Emily was one of the show's least successful even during the original broadcast. Emily Howard is a transvestite (Eddie Howard) who protests too much through the frequent proclamation of "I'm a lady".

The scenes involving Emily/Eddie focus on the character's actions undermining the aforementioned proclamation.

Answer: Royston Vasey

Stella and Charlie Hull are characters that feature across multiple series of 'The League of Gentlemen' but their most interesting scenes take place in series one of this excellent show. The relationship between Stella and Charlie is clearly strained and their frustrations bubble over whenever they go out for a meal at a local Italian restaurant.

It turns out that they are not really frequenting the restaurant for its food but rather to use Carl (a waiter that the pair convinced themselves is called Luigi) as an intermediary in their all too public "domestics".

Answer: Little Britain

Think of a pink Kappa tracksuit (as I very often do) and a rather indecisive "yeah, but, no, but, yeah, but, no, but..." and you instantly arrive at the one, the only, Vicky Pollard. 'Little Britain' naturally took the Vicky Pollard concept to the extreme but it was her more understated scenes that were often the most humorous, such as her attempt to redeem a fake lottery ticket. One of Pollard's many other catchphrases, which only really works when said in the Bristolian accent, is "oooh my God, I so can't believe you just said that!"

Answer: Little Britain

Carol Beer, played by David Walliams, was the personification of the algorithm and the "knowledge bank". Any customer request that landed on Carol's desk was referred to the computer (with suitably random keyboard mashing) only for the inevitable response of "Computer says no" to be relayed to a perplexed member of the public. If a customer was particularly lucky, Carol would cough in their face (now that is customer service)! The 'Little Britain' team certainly managed to capture the absurdity of modern corporate decision making with this silly sketch!

Answer: Royston Vasey

Les McQueen is a character that most people can relate to; he is the man down the pub who had some moderate success many moons ago and won't let anybody forget it. As well as pillorying this character, 'The League of Gentlemen' team also captures the sadness that underpins McQueen's behaviour. Les was a guitarist with the band Creme Brulee and his "success" is best characterised by the man himself:

"Everyone knew me around here, I'd walk in a urinal and heads would turn!"