For the past ten years, series creators Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton have written some of the smartest, funniest, and often darkest tales ever to grace a television screen. Now, after over 50 episodes and nine seasons, its all over. I’m sure many will join me in mourning by re-watching them all over again. Full disclosure: I watch them all at least once a year.
Notorious for its brilliant twist endings in almost ever episode, every episode of Inside No 9 is dramatically different despite its consistently familiar format. Often beginning within an ordinary British setting, varying from an everyday flat, the London Underground, even a call centre, every episode emanates British culture with intricate accuracy and poignance. Once the scene is set, every single episode quickly blooms with a fresh sense of compelling storytelling, coupled with a feeling of uneasy dread. Before you realise it you have shuffled right to the edge of your seat as if you were being pulled into your television. And that’s just the build up before the shock twists cap off each peerless thirty minutes of television as the proverbial cherry atop the cake.
All good things do come to an end, both unfortunately and eventually, and for Inside No.9 to end it also feels like the end of an era for the anthology shorts genre. There is little to compare from the US currently, and there has been little to challenge these macabre masters over the past ten years. Writer/star Steve Pemberton has called this a pause to production rather than a definitive end to the series, so there is always hope it will be sooner rather than later. But it isn’t over yet, and we should definitely savour every moment of this genre-defining series.
I have to admit that despite the short story anthology genre being a personal favourite due to the continually evolving storyline format, characters that are quickly invested in as they are discarded once the story is over, plus being infinitely and continually re-watchable, I was a late comer to Inside No.9, joining around the launch of season 5. One very quick binge watch of the previous 25 episodes and I was totally hooked, line, sinker and all. Easily the BBC’s most repeatable show, Inside No.9 doesn’t suffer from being generationally timestamped. Until the mobile phone is superseded at least.
Reece and Steve appear in almost every single episode in a variety of parts, from leading to background to in-between, a constant beating heart of the show. Their ability to present depth and backstory within seconds is masterful, even if its the episode that you might not like as much as the last. Most if not all episodes end with a big reveal, many of which are unguessable - the opening episode of the final series is an absolute stonker. The end of series eight depicts the efforts one can take to get revenge to skin-crawling effect.
The closest comparison I can make to Inside No.9 is HBO’s Tales From the Crypt. Of course they’re not the same format-wise, but the storytelling, production values and of course, the twists, are cut from a similar cloth. But what Inside No.9 will forever hold over HBO’s efforts, and many more that have arrived since, is these are original stories, all penned by Shearsmith and Pemberton. Crypt and many others are TV adaptations of existing material, and that’s what makes Shearsmith and Pemberton’s creation so organic and brilliant, and across a broader range of topics and backdrops no less.
Shearsmith and Pemberton have announced a West End show based on the series that begins in just three days time. The prospect of Inside No.9 in the theatre might not be as intimate, but will no doubt add an extra dimension to their hair-raising tales and tragedies. And while finishing a show based around the number nine after nine series feels appropriate, hopefully two of the greatest minds to grace our screens won’t be able to stay away for long.
