Reece Shearsmith

Even by Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton's usual high standards, this week's instalment of Inside No. 9 is exceptional. Set in a small flat, The 12 Days Of Christine follows the key moments in the life of a young woman, played by Sheridan Smith. But, as always, everything is not quite as it seems. Powerful, poignant and inventive, it's a masterclass in concise storytelling.

Review: Inside No. 9, 2.1 - 'La Couchette'

They'll perhaps never again create anything with the impact of The League of Gentlemen, which changed the television landscape back in 1999 (inspiring a wave of twisted comedies like Nighty Night, while challenging the very idea of what a BBC comedy could look like), but Inside No. 9 is nevertheless a brilliant anthology show that sees former-League members Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton channel their gift for the macabre into fresh weekly stories.

Review: Inside No. 9. Episode 2.1 - 'La Couchette'

Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton are exceptional storytellers, their writing is ingenious, incisive and full of telling detail. The intricacies in their work are deployed to tell a good story & tell it as well as possible.

The return of Inside No. 9 was a delight. Strangers trapped in a train compartment, in this case a TGV couchette, is hardly more original a starting point than time travel, but Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, who wrote and starred, scored a laugh ever few seconds and then a home run with a savage resolution.

The remarkable thing - and here credit is shared with a cast that included Mark Benton and Julie Hesmondhalgh - was that the passengers were little more than stereotypes: a drunken German; a tarty Aussie backpacker; a control-freak Englishman and Jack Whitehall (who has become a type all by himself). Yet they were as fresh as the pilgrims in Chaucer's Prologue.

Inside No. 9 review

Even if they don't make you laugh, you have to concede Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith are the most febrilely inventive writers on TV. But to say they are an acquired taste is like mentioning that absinthe isn't everybody's tipple, and that human sacrifice takes some getting used to.

The anthology series from Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith returns. We begin on a six-berth sleeper in France. Without giving too much away, expect fart jokes, an unpleasant discovery and, in a show that makes a virtue of its claustrophobic environs, mismatched passengers winding each other up. The script is a delight, with one line delivered by Jack Whitehall quite possibly the most gloriously tasteless you'll hear on television all year. Also starring Julie Hesmondhalgh and Mark Benton.

Reece Shearsmith's TV nightmares

As a second series looms, Inside No. 9's star and co-writer Reece Shearsmith pays tribute to the creepy, unpredictable sci-fi and horror anthology shows that inspired it.

Video: Shearsmith & Pemberton reveal No. 9's TV talent

Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith (The League of Gentleman) return with a new series of cult black comedy Inside No. 9 tonight, but while they wrote all six episodes, they certainly aren't the stars of the show as they told us.

Inside No 9 is back - and it's as creepy as ever

Ben Dowell meets Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton to discuss the return of their unsettling "comedy".

Inside Number 9 review: 'deliciously wicked'

Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton gave us a ruthless dissection of human foibles, from an attempt to open a zip as quietly as possible to, well, murder.