You ask the questions

Jeremy Dyson, Reece Shearsmith, Mark Gatiss and Steve Pemberton met while studying in Leeds and formed the stand-up comedy group The League of Gentlemen in 1996. They came to prominence in 1997 when they won the Perrier award at the Edinburgh Festival. Their show, with its bizarre cast of "locals" set in the fictitious village of Royston Vasey, has become cult viewing. In 1999 it transferred to BBC2 and last year the first series won a Bafta for best comedy.

Jeremy Dyson, Reece Shearsmith, Mark Gatiss and Steve Pemberton met while studying in Leeds and formed the stand-up comedy group The League of Gentlemen in 1996. They came to prominence in 1997 when they won the Perrier award at the Edinburgh Festival. Their show, with its bizarre cast of "locals" set in the fictitious village of Royston Vasey, has become cult viewing. In 1999 it transferred to BBC2 and last year the first series won a Bafta for best comedy.

Would you ever consider doing a sketch on Dr Harold Shipman? J Dullaghan, London We're not interested in doing sketches on specific people or real people. The idea of a murdering local doctor isn't too far from what we do anyway but we've got no interest in satirising people's grief. It's like trying to transcribe the sick joke that always crops up in the pub when there's been a death or a national disaster. Funny, but only in the pub.

Is there such a thing as bad taste? K Monkton, by e-mail Yes. Special stuff.

Where is Royston Vasey? H Kavanagh, by e-mail It's filmed in Hadfield in Derbyshire, near Glossop but we never really specify where it is, it's just a place in the North, although if you look closely on the posters the postcode is Huddersfield, but that was a mistake. It's no particular place, it's like Twin Peaks in the north.

I'd rather been led to believe that Roy "Chubby" Brown was an indefensible hangover from a less-enlightened age. Why resurrect his career? S Page, Kinver, Staffordshire Roy does have an extraordinarily flourishing career already. He's the most popular live comedian of his generation and a hysterically funny and lovely man. So there.

So, the four of you walk into a pub in Hadfield. What happens? Do you get beaten up? L Cole, London We order four bottles of Babycham and receive a warm welcome from the friendly locals. Then we get beaten up. Generally, it's fine. A lot of people absolutely love it. They're doing a flourishing trade in souvenirs. There's always people who want to complain and some people don't like disruption, but we were very careful about not getting in everyone's way. We've just finished filming the Christmas special in the park, not getting in anyone's way, yet we were pelted with crab apples by a gang of youths. It works both ways. We just grinned and bore it.

As a cannibal I wonder if you can offer me any "special" recipes? Harriet Symes, Croydon There is a common misconception that Hilary Briss's special stuff is human flesh. It is not. So we must decline your request. You wouldn't sleep if you knew what it really was.

Are you local? Ian Hickton, Stoke-on-Trent No.

Have you considered asking Victoria Beckham to guest-star in your Royston Vasey saga? She looks like a local girl with that nose, don't you think? Lucinda Maybury, Oldham She does look like a local girl. There's a picture of her in Tubbs' scrapbook. We think she must have found a copy of Hello! which the Beckhams are in every other week. Tubbs has cut out her picture thinking she must be related to Victoria. Tubbs thought she'd make a very good no-tail to marry David but she rejected her because she hasn't got much meat on her.

The nude suit was fantastic. Any plans to market it? Daisy Ramatar, Banbury The nude suit in the first series was very hot. It was an attempt to look like Britt Eckland in The Wicker Man but because the suit was so big I couldn't reach back to slap the cheeks of my bottom the way Britt did. In the second series when the Dentons have nude day there was no nude suit involved - that was Mark's body with two fake beards to form a merkin which is a technical name for a pubic wig.

Is Tubbs based on Timothy Lumsden's mother from the sit-com Sorry? Dom Bradley, Blackpool No, Tubbs is based on a local shop keeper who has a shop selling hats in Rottingdean, outside Brighton. We happened to wander in one day because Mark is interested in fossils and he'd seen a lovely trilobite in the window. So we went in and the woman who ran the shop looked horrified, as if we were carrying baseball bats covered in nails trying to extort money from her or steal her fossils which must have been precious things. We would like to work with Ronnie Corbett. In fact, he looks quite local. I could easily imagine him being Edward's long lost brother.

How important is the TV series compared with the tour of local theatres (for local people)? Gareth Collins, Cardiff The tour is a great chance for us to get back to the way we started out. Ninety per cent of the characters started life on stage and so we'll be confident doing them live. We can't wait to get outside London and get a response from proper local people. We're hoping that some people will come dressed as characters. That's when we'll know we've made it.

Do you have a local shop? And if so, will they serve you in it? D Morely, Watford Yes, we have a Cost Cutter over the road and they're only too pleased to serve us.

What made you laugh when you were growing up? Sally Campsie, Northolt The Two Ronnies, Basil Brush, Pipkins... children's TV was great in those days, it was all quite grim. There's a lot of comedy actors that we're big fans of: Leonard Rossiter, Peter Sellers, Alistair Sim, Alec Guinness - the kind that are brilliant actors but have a brilliant gift for comedy or characters as well. That's the stable we're coming from - Steve Coogan as well, we're a big fan of his, too.

The first series was great. The second was a bit OTT. Tell me that you'll be doing something completely different. Stuart Reeves, by e-mail We haven't talked about a third series yet, so we're not yet sure what it will be about. It may be Royston Vasey if it will sustain a third trip but I think it will depend on the shift in the way we're beginning to write. It's becoming much more of a narrative, they're becoming stories rather than just sketches, and we're starting to spend a little longer with each of the characters. But it's all still up for grabs.

How do the people of Hadfield feel about the town being portrayed as Royston Vasey? Camilla Poynter, by e-mail With Peak Practice and Heartbeat, they're used to people filming in Hadfield. After they'd seen the series, people were divided because we had to shut the high street down and that was quite disruptive to the locals. But now they absolutely love it. The Royston Vasey butcher has started selling Special Stuff and there's sweat-shirts, mugs, souvenirs, local tours - loads of stuff. People have come from Finland to see the site of the local shop and the butcher's was going to shut down because of lack of trade, but now it's stayed open. We've done them a lot of good.

Will Papa Lazarou be accompanying you on the forthcoming tour or not? Ian Hickton, Stoke-on-Trent Yes he will. He'll be asking for Dave.

Edward and Tubbs - dead? Can it be true? Lawrence Monfort, Shropshire Yes it can.

'The League of Gentlemen', Series One, is released on BBC Worldwide video on 9 October priced £14.99