| Ross Gaines | |
|---|---|
| |
| Actor | Reece Shearsmith |
| Appearances | |
| Programme | The League of Gentlemen |
| Series | 1, 2, 3, Anniversary Specials |
| First appearance | "Welcome to Royston Vasey" |
| Last appearance | "Return to Royston Vasey" |
| Other appearances | The League of Gentlemen: Live at Drury Lane The League of Gentlemen Are Behind You! The League of Gentlemen Live Again! |
| Information | |
| Marital status | Single |
| Occupation | Internal investigator at Job Centre |
| Related characters | Mickey Michaels (friend) Pauline Campbell-Jones (enemy) |
"Would you say you're a fairly egregious person?"
Ross Gaines ("Nightmare in Royston Vasey")
Ross Gaines works at Royston Vasey's Job Centre as an internal investigator. He ends up firing Pauline from her job as a Restart Officer after acting as a job seeker to collect information. After this point, he remains her worst enemy.
Inspiration[]
Pauline was based on Reece's restart officer. but Reece was actually the basis for Ross - the real Pauline saw that Reece was the smartest in the room, so she requested him to help with the projector and anything technical.
Stage[]
Ross appeared in the original stage show, where sketches like "Egregious" were born.
Radio[]
Ross appears with Pauline and Mickey in the Radio Series with the action being more verbal due to the format.
Appearances[]
Series One[]
In the first episode, Ross is clearly displeased at having to be in the Restart course. When Pauline asks for job examples, Ross begins intentionally listing them off faster than she is able to write them down - she snaps at him, but he remains smug. Later, when Mickey goes to leave for a job interview, Pauline forces him to sit back down. Ross defends him, but Pauline's bullying results in Mickey staying and missing out on the opportunity.
The next day, Pauline teaches the job-seekers to sell products using The Big Issue as an example. Ross argues that they aren't stupid, so Pauline makes him do the exercise, and ends up asking him to beg her to buy it in a condescending tone. He refuses, and she hits him with the magazine. She then does the exercise with Mickey with a different result, vowing to Ross that he will return back to the restart course as many times as she can make him.
When the course begins to focus on interview techniques, Ross questions Pauline about spreadsheets and computer-based work, to which Pauline insults him. After Mickey goes through a roleplay interview (which he fails), Pauline offers the job-seekers the chance to interview her. Ross offers, and Pauline quickly agrees. Straight away Ross begins asking questions which highlight Pauline's flaw in a blatant way. At one point, he asks if she considers herself an egregious person - Pauline, not understanding what that means, says that she is. At the end of the interview, Ross confirms to her that she has failed the interview: she is rude, under-qualified, and is too old for the job (moving trolleys around ASDA). Pauline then ends the exercise, taking her clipboard back before hitting Ross in the face with it and stuffing his interview notes down his throat. She is only stopped by Mickey's pleading.
On the final day of the course, Ross reveals that he has not actually been there as a job-seeker, and rather had been conducting an internal investigation into her behaviour. As Pauline had been exceptionally cruel to the job-seekers, sometimes resorting to physical violence, she was fired from her job and asked to return her pens (which were no longer her property).
Series Two[]
Ross appears in Episode Two, when Pauline and Mickey are working at the Burger Me Takeaway. Pauline, still resentful about her firing, spits into his veggie burger (completely unaware that there is a security camera filming everything) to which she is promptly fired again.
After her firing, Ross (now in charge of benefits payments), asks Pauline what had actually caused it. She makes a remark without actually specifying the events, which leads to her benefits being cut for a period of nine weeks. Ross offers to appeal it, but only if she begged him (a callback to the Big Issue roleplay). Pauline loses it, and tries to attack Ross with a pen before getting Mickey to hold him down as she tapes him to a chair. He is then held as a hostage, only to be released if Pauline gets her job back (and Mickey gets a fire engine). Due to the nosebleed epidemic being the town's focus (and the fact that Pauline attempted to communicate her demands to the police via a deaf boy), this fails. After a while, Pauline ventures out to go and get the group some sandwiches, and Ross uses this as his chance to escape by convincing Mickey that he'll get him the requested fire engine, on the condition that he is let go. Pauline returns to an empty room - Mickey having left at this point out of shame - before Ross appears in the doorway with two police officers. She is then arrested.
Series Three[]
Ross frees Pauline from prison early so she can work with him to expose Mickey and his brothers, who have been cheating the benefits system. At the Raw Egg Cafe, he and Pauline look over what they had found out, with the only new information being that Mickey's mother is dead and they pretend she isn't to claim her benefits. He tells Pauline about what they know about Mickey and his brothers; they have been on the dole for 68 years in total between them, which Ross resents due to his own hardworking nature. He warns Pauline that she has a week to find some soild evidence - if none was found, she would be returned to jail.
A couple of days later Pauline goes to Ross' Flat, a particularly sparse apartment, where she reveals she and Mickey are engaged. He mentions that she had only recently said that he was "thick, stinks and lives in a shithole", but she is dismissive of his comments. Ross offers her a glass of wine as a 'last taste of freedom'. They then have passionate sex, which he believes that Pauline did to get the case file off of him. While Ross allows her this, he warns Pauline that he will have to tell Mickey about the sex, reminding her that Mickey sees him as a friend (who he has now committed the ultimate betrayal to). She asks Ross why he would do such a thing, to which he tells Pauline (with much resentment) that she had made him hate the job he once loved, and he begins ringing Mickey. However, despite telling Pauline to rush, Mickey never answers the phone.
Ross arrives late to Pauline and Mickey's wedding in the final episode, just as the service is over. He seems almost pleased for the two, implying that himself and Pauline had potentially put their differences aside.
Anniversary Specials[]
Ross is present in the Anniversary Specials, in a scene in which Pauline had (seemingly) been reinstated in her role at the job centre, with Mickey and himself being present at the class. This is soon revealed to be a form of dementia treatment - by reenacting an experience in Pauline's life, she would potentially be able to remember these events. Initially, it doesn't seem to be working, but Mickey says that Ross should write something inappropriate on the board in an attempt to help - as he approaches the board, Pauline flips it, hitting him square in the jaw. She then goes on a rant at Ross, now able to remember who he is.
Live Shows[]
Drury Lane[]
In the first post TV Live Show, Ross is the first person interviewed about Pauline's murder. He doesn't hide his hatred of her, and talks about her violent side in a recreation of the "Egregious" sketch. He is, surprisingly, not the one to have killed her - it was in fact Mickey, who had shot her when an altercation between herself and Cathy Carter-Smith had gone from violent to sexual in a considerably short amount of time.
...Are Behind You![]
Ross appears as Pauline's Landlord for her shop, Herr Nibs, who comes to ask for his rent payment. As she hasn't got the money to pay it due to her business being wildly unsuccessful, they end up using an alternative means of payment (sex).
Live Again[]
Trivia[]
- Pauline was going to stab Ross in the eye with a pen in one planned ending.
- The job in the Egregious sketch of trolley shifting was based on a job Reece had applied for, he didn't get the job for the reason that he was too smart, and his personality would've caused trouble.
- The fight in Series Two was taken from The Omen between Gregory Peck and Billie Whitelaw.
- The meeting scene in the Raw Egg was done on location which was difficult as a woman was feeding a dog Bacon and was making loud noises.
- The Sex Scene in Series Three was funny in readings and rehearsals, but was quite uncomfortable to shoot.