Inside No 9 Wednesday 10.00pm BBC2
Is this really the end of Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith’s twisted anthology? It would be foolish to second-guess them…
AS STEVE PEMBERTON and Reece Shearsmith’s consistently brilliant (and brilliantly consistent) Inside No 9 comes to end, let’s hope it’s not also farewell to a once popular format – the TV anthology.
From the 1950s to the 1980s, such series were all over our screens, whether themed around the general – Play for Today and Armchair Theatre – or the specifc, based around recurring actors, writers and ideas (from Comedy Playhouse and Benny Hill to Tales of the Unexpected and Hammer House of Horror).
Sadly, this type of series had fallen out of favour by the 1990s. But Inside No 9 recalls the golden age of the anthology, incorporating some of its key factors: stories written by the same writers; featuring – to an extent – the same actors; linked by a single (though, in this case, abstract) theme.
Inside No 9 has had its own very distinctive style. Regardless of how different the individual stories have been (horror, satire, farce, period piece, spoof, ghost story, murder mystery), it’s remained resolutely recognisable as a “signature piece”. Each episode is written by Pemberton and Shearsmith, (almost) every edition stars them too, and in some way features a room, building or object tied to the number nine.
Within those parameters, the vast array of different areas the show has covered is a testament to the skill, imagination and ambition of the core creators. It also consistently delivered high-quality episodes across its entire run. To that end, it can be compared favourably with the greatest examples of the genre such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents/The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (US 1955- 65), The Twilight Zone (US 1959-64), Thriller (ITV 1973-76) or Tales of the Unexpected (ITV 1979-88).
The guest casts als
