Memorabilia in a league of its own
Comedy show signs up for sale - and they’re not just for local people
ICONIC signs made for cult TV comedy The League of Gentlemen – which had to be painted “as badly as possible” – could sell for thousands of pounds at auction.
The signs, which include the famous ‘Welcome to Royston Vasey. You’ll never leave!,’ ‘Local Shop’ and ‘Babs Cabs,’ are the work of former TV, film and theatre set designer the late David Hill, who at the time the show was being made lived in Hadfield, Derbyshire, the village where The League of Gentlemen was filmed between 1999 and 2002.
They’re part of memorabilia related to the show including two early sketches of signs, a signed cast photo, photos of David at work and some of his signs.
He made all the signage used in the dark comedy series set in the fictional northern town of Royston Vasey, following the lives of bizarre characters, most of whom are played by three of the show’s four writers – Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, and Reece Shearsmith.
Altogether, David made around 100 signs for the show. The ones coming up for auction are prototypes made for the show and did not appear on screen. They are due to be sold in Etwall-based Hansons Auctioneers’ Music, Film and TV Memorabilia Auction next Wednesday, June 23 with an estimate of £1,500£2,000.
Wendy Hall, 64, David’s former partner, from Chesterfield, said: “David’s earliest remit was to paint the signs as badly as he could, just like a Royston Vasey signwriter might well have done!
It almost made his eyes bleed to see some of his handiwork. Thankfully, the show’s producers let go of that idea after a few months and allowed him to distress them instead. Ideas were fluid in the early days.
“It all came about because someone from the BBC just knocked on our door one day. They were in Hadfield scouting the area as a location for the show. They saw David’s signwriting board outside our house and asked if he could help make some signs for the show. That’s how it all started.
“The pink for the Babs Cabs sign came about because we’d just redecorated our bedroom in a paint called Raspberry Ripple. It was an horrendous sickly pink. When the BBC sign remit came through and they were unsure about the colour, David said, ‘I have just the thing!’”
David died suddenly from a heart attack in 2010, just ten days before his and Wendy’s son was due to get married. When Wendy moved house in 2015, all the League of Gentlemen memorabilia which was in her loft went to her new loft and she forgot about them until she found the Babs Cabs sign one day in a bin bag.
“I had no idea what to do with them so I put a post on Glossop’s Facebook page to ask for suggestions. It went crazy. I was getting messages at midnight from people as far away as Germany who were desperate to buy them.
“I was taken aback and thought the best thing to do was to put them up for auction. I already have lots of signs made by David to honour his memory. I hope The League of Gentleman signs will go to someone who loves the show and will treasure and display them.”
Hansons valuer Claire Howell said:
“As soon as we shared this find on social media, the interest was phenomenal. It drummed up major excitement among fans of the show and we immediately started getting emails from people keen to buy. This is a phenomenal one-off opportunity for any League of Gentlemen fan to own something very special.”
For details, email Josh Mccarthy: jmccarthy@hansonsauctioneers.co.uk. Catalogue: www.hansonslive.co.uk