Reece Shearsmith

Last year A Quiet Night In, the second and silent instalment of this series, garnered much deserved praise, but every one of these six modern tales of the unexpected were vignettes of cunning precision. Every word, every line, lifted the curtain a smidgeon more, although what the curtain obscured thwarted where our expectations had led us. Few write with such disguised economy, or catch us as unawares, as this pair.

Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton's jocular devilry and creeping terror returns for this new run with La Couchette, where the occupants of sleeping berth number nine endure a terrible night's sleep. By contrast next week's standalone film, The 12 Days of Christine, is as haunting a piece of TV you'll watch this year.

The dark imaginations of Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith are back with six more self-contained, bleakly comic dramas set in different locations, all of which have a No 9 on the door.

Tonight's opener has echoes of the very first episode of all, in which a diverse assortment of characters at a country house squeezed into a cupboard during a game of sardines. The difference here is that the characters - an anally retentive doctor, a flatulent German, a British couple on the way to their daughter's wedding, a rude Australian backpacker et al - squeeze into a tiny couchette on a train out of Paris. You may think you know where it is headed, but don't be so sure...

Those masters of the dark arts, the former League Of Gentlemen co-stars Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, return with a second instalment of their deliciously macabre shorts, the first series of which won best comedy performance at the Royal Television Society awards last week.
Like a Tales Of The Unexpected for the 21st century, each perfectly formed 30 minutes offers a masterclass in storytelling: witty, imaginative, inventive and suspenseful - with a clever twist at the end for good measure.
The six tales are linked by the number nine and in the opening episode, La Couchette, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Mark Benton, Jessica Gunning and Jack Whitehall join Pemberton and Shearsmith on board the sleeper train from Paris to Bourg-Saint-Maurice. They're a motley collection trying to get a quiet night's sleep as the train makes its way across France, but as the sleeping compartment fills up, the chances of that begin to look highly unlikely...
The setting for future episodes include a séance in the grand Victorian villa, a modern-day family get-together, a 17th-century village witch trial and a volunteer call centre, with Alison Steadman, Claire Skinner, Jane Horrocks, Paul Kaye and Tom Riley among the cast. Special mention must go to Sheridan Smith, however, for her performance in next week's offering, The 12 Days Of Christine, a powerful, moving story of one woman's rocky journey through life. It is an absolute gem, one of the best things I have seen on television this year.

For Reece Shearsmith, whose collaborations with fellow writer and actor Steve Pemberton include The League Of Gentlemen] and Psychoville, there's something irresistible about the dark side of life. "Whenever we've tried to do anything lighter, it doesn't feel complete until we've added some darkness", says Reese, who co-wrote Inside No. 9 with Steve. "The tales are not always horrible - but then again, maybe our threshold of what's horrible is very different from everyone else's!"

Their new collection of surreal stories opens in the No. 9 carriage of a sleeper train in France. Jack Whitehall, Waterloo Road's Mark Benton and former Corrie star Julie Hesmondhalgh are among the passengers trapped for one night on a journey that takes a chilling turn.

"The thrill is that viewers never quite know what's happening," says Reece, 45. "Each episode starts with its feet on the ground, and the scenery looks familiar. That's how we lull you. You think: 'I've seen this before' - and then suddenly it turns into something you definitely haven't seen before. We hope that's what makes Inside No. 9 more arresting."

Jack Whitehall on Inside No. 9

Jack Whitehall had absolutely no hesitation in saying "yes" the moment he was offered a part in the second season of Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith's latest inspired comedy series, Inside No. 9.

Steve Pemberton: Reopening the doors Inside No. 9

Steve Pemberton, writer and actor for shows such as A League of Gentlemen, Psychoville and Benidorm, talks to BBC Writersroom about his upcoming 2nd series of Inside No. 9. A dark comedy anthology which he co-writes/co-stars in with Reece Shearsmith.

Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton on Inside No. 9

"We wanted to do something that was a reaction against the box set culture", says Reece Shearsmith's co-cretaor Steve Pemberton at a press conference to launch the second series.

Radio Times review

Bob Mortimer may well be in trouble with his wife after this broadcast. He has told her that he works from 9.30am to 4pm with his comedy cohort Jim Moir (Vic Reeves). He now confesses to Reece Shearsmith that they stop feeling funny around 2pm and he has a nap in a car park.

Such endearing revelations are all part of this show's appeal -- it gets great stories because the interviewees feel comfortable enough to share.

The driverless car of chat shows, Chain Reaction (BBC Radio 4), returned this week with Adam Buxton firing questions at The League of Gentlemen's Reece Shearsmith. The tag-team format allows for a nice variation in tone (the host baton passes to Shearsmith next week, with a new guest in the other chair), but when the host is as thoughtful and considered as Buxton I almost wish it was his show alone. He's the ideal blend of gentle irreverence and a genuine interest in other people. For all the novelty of the format, it was a good, old-fashioned interview, with Shearsmith offering up everything from impersonations of his old acting teacher and revelations about his childhood (he was nearly christened John Wayne) to the intriguing story of the time he became the apprentice to special-effects artist Christopher Tucker, only to run away from his house in the middle of the night "like Jonathan Harker fleeing Castle Dracula". In a brilliant summation of his comedy oeuvre, including The League of Gentlemen, Psychoville and Inside No. 9, he describes the template as: "Three people in a room. One of them goes mad." Chain Reaction is such an obvious candidate for translation to television that it's puzzling it has yet to make the jump.