Farmer Shiner Gruff farmer Shiner is a churchwarden and the richest man in the village thanks to his sound business sense. He is smitten by Fancy and knows she would bring joy and companionship into his big but lonely house. He sets out to make her his wife. ...the music and singing waxed so loud that it was impossible to know what Mr. Shiner had said, was saying, or was about to say; but wildly flinging his arms and body about in the forms of capital Xs and Ys, he appeared to utter enough invectives to consign the whole parish to perdition... Mr. Shiner, age about thirty-five, farmer and church-warden, a character principally composed of a crimson stare, vigorous breath, and a watch-chain, with a mouth hanging on a dark smile but never smiling, had come quite willingly to the party, and showed a wondrous obliviousness of all his antics on the previous night... Steve Pemberton, originally from Blackburn, Lancashire, graduated from Bretton Hall Drama College. He is a co-writer and co-star of the BBC's The League of Gentlemen, a proudly tasteless and bizarre comedy (described as "Monty Python meets Twin Peaks"). He has also appeared in Gormenghast, Shameless, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Match Point.