Reece Shearsmith

League of Gentlemen to reunite for 20th anniversary?

Reece Shearsmith says that a collaboration with League of Gentlemen stars Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Jeremy Dyson may be on the cards.

Inside No 9: a gutsy dark comedy of misery and mayhem

Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, makers of The League of Gentlemen, return with a collection of unrelated tales of morality and mortality, and a legion of ghoulish mishaps.

Inside No 9 wins at prestigious Rockie Awards

The silent episode of Inside No. 9 written by and starring Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith picked up its second award in two days at the prestigious BANFF World Media (Rockie) Awards earlier this week.

Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton's Inside No. 9 (BBC Two) has been a deliciously twisted treat, each tale balancing neatly on a tightrope so you were never quite sure if we were about to make the leap into comedy or tragedy. But the final numerically themed short story was unashamedly macabre.

True, the odd defiantly bad joke ('Do you know Poe?' 'From the Teletubbies?') pierced the darkness as babysitter Katy turned up for work at a house which made the Addams Family homestead look light and airy. Yet this was a briefing for a descent into hell from which there could be no escape.

The twist being - in a series which has specialised in ingenious surprises - that there was no twist. You could call that daring but it actually felt like a bit of a cop-out, as though the dark-hearted Shearsmith and Pemberton were laughing at us: 'Ha! So you thought we'd left you off the hook.' I didn't quite buy the macabre self-indulgence. But the Devil's closing howl of 'mischief!' did give me the willies deep into the night. In that respect, job done.

Helen McCrory and Reece Shearsmith star as Tabitha and Hector, sibling proprietors of the final episode in this blackly comic series. We're in a gothic mansion with a sinister secret at the top and schoolgirl Katy (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) may have bitten off more than she can chew when she agrees to housesit. It's a trip flickering with demonic humour but by the time we reach the closing scene we've gone over to the dark side completely. Sleep well.

Radio Times review

The last and nastiest visit to the ninth house on the left, which this episode is a looming, draughty pile out of place on a suburban street. Aimeé-Ffion Edwards, as excellent here as she was in Skin and Walking and Talking, is a schoolgirl babysitter who's been promised a bumper payday but immediately finds that the job, set by icy householder Helen McCrory, is too creepy to be worth the cash.

To say more would spoil, but as the creaking terror takes hold you'll marvel at how Steve Pemberton (absent) and Reece Shearsmith (in full Hammer horror mode) can pepper the elegant script with gags without breaking the spell.

Will there be a better comedy series in 2014? Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton's twisted, and indeed twisty, tales are too dark for some viewers' blood, but they're the work of storytellers at the top of their game. Each self-contained episode slyly mixes silly jokes and proper horror. Start with the beautifully choreographed A Quiet Night In.

Inside No. 9, BBC2's dark comedy thriller series from half a League of Gents, Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, who were also behind Psychoville, has been a critical hit but has not excelled in the ratings. Episodes have attracted a not-so-thrilling average of 800,000 viewers, but fans of the tales with a twist will be relieved to hear that a sequel has been commissioned. The decision was taken before the series was broadcast - if the number-crunchers had seen the figures maybe they would have had second thoughts. Catch the final edition, The Harrowing, with Helen McCrory guesting, on Wednesday.

Comedy doesn't come blacker than this. Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith cut loose in their series-concluding episode and produce a chilling half-hour that really is best avoided by those of a nervous disposition, as the announcers used to say. Schoolgirl Katy (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) arrives to babysit at a gothic mansion where there is no mobile phone signal, no heating and as it turns out, no baby. Hector (Shearsmith) and Tabitha (Helen McCrory) are the spooky siblings asking here to look after the place, which is also home to their infirm brother upstairs.