The League of Gentlemen is a quartet of British dark comedy writer–performers, formed in 1995 by Jeremy Dyson, Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith. The television programme for which they are best known, although officially labelled a sitcom, was initially more sketch-based, linked together by their common setting: the fictional village of Royston Vasey, based on the town of Alston, Cumbria and set somewhere in the north of England. The show contains elements of horror. The first series aired on BBC Two in 1999 and follows the lives of dozens of the town's bizarre inhabitants, played by Gatiss, Pemberton and Shearsmith in a number of guises and make-up. The television series was filmed mainly in Hadfield but also features Glossop, Gamesley, Marsden, Mottram, Hope Valley (Derbyshire) and Todmorden.

The series ended in 2002 although a movie version of the show was released in 2005. Rumours have circulated since 2007 that the show would return for a full length series or special but nothing has been confirmed or denied. Shearsmith and Pemberton reunited in 2009 to create a similarly dark BBC sitcom, Psychoville, which featured an episode guest-starring Gatiss. The three reunited in 2012 to film a series of sketches for the fourth series of CBBC show Horrible Histories.