Reece Shearsmith interview
Psychoville stars Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton are back with a new format. Each episode of Inside No. 9 involves a different story and different set of characters - from every angle it looks set to be a big hit. Here we talk to Reece Shearsmith about the show...
Hi Reece. You must be very proud and pleased with how Inside No. 9 has turned out?
Yes, I've been delighted - it's a hard sell these days, commissioners don't like anthology series... they're squeamish of the idea of doing them because, theoretically, they say you can't grow an audience without commitment to it. You're not returning with a character that people will grow to like, you're starting again each week - that's the apparent reason why they are not done very often. But Steve and I had such fun writing the quite isolated, claustrophobic Psychoville episode that was like Rope, the one all set in one room, that we thought it would be really good to try and get a similiar tone and do delightful things.
I think if they are good little stories, and they hook you in, you are kind of forgiving for whatever it is, as long as it is worth watching. I remember in the 70s and 80s, that's all there was on television. Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Armchair Thriller, Beast, Tales of the Unexpected... so we just thought 'we have got to try and do something like this again'.
It was kind of a delight to have the constraints of the one room type thing, and give ourselves the challenge of writing these little Plays For Today. Having really good actors in, and trying to have some fun with that format. We're not consciously always having to add a twist in the tale - we're just wanting to have the enjoyment of a half hour that is about the acting and the writing and not about flitting around. The episodes are not really very 'fancy', but I think they feel quite new because it hasn't been done for a while.
It absolutely works too... it makes the anticipation for each subsequent episode greater because, as a viewer, you don't know what you're going to get next. The second episode totally blew us away...
They are all really different in tone - that one [the second episode], the quiet one, the one where we don't speak, it's like The Chuckle Brothers really! Then you get a very dark one, like the first one, and then there are some other ones that are quite psychologically disturbing - there is one that's set in a theatre dressing room, which is really good. I'm really pleased with all of them. They're really labours of love each one, and I really hope people go along with it. I just want people to know it's on and watch it - I'm so proud of it!
The premise linking the episodes is that each is set in a room or house with the number 9 on it. What is the significance of that number?
It was either going to be Number 9 or Number 52 - not Number 73 because we couldn't get Toksvig - but there was something about the 9 that seemed 'literate', if that's the word.
We were a slightly dubious of whether we should call it that because were people going to think 'Is it like being next to Number 10... is it a Downing Street thing?' but we thought 'well, let's get past that'.
We originally wanted to simply call it Number 9, but we were told 'that doesn't tell you anything about it', so they wanted to put 'Inside' in front of it... which also doesn't actually tell you anything about it, but they felt somehow that it might clarify what it was about, because you are going inside...
But, yes, the number 9, there was no real reason for it other than we just arrived at a number. It was hard thinking of a title - we did have Happy Endings - but we couldn't use it as there's been one called that that already. The irony of that is that there are no happy endings particularly in our show.
How did you decide what stories to focus on?
It is great to have done an anthology, because you are then mopping up all your one-off ideas and thoughts.
We had a few of the ideas already. The third story in the series is one of the first things Steve and I wrote together. It was in 1994 - it was a play about being on the dole and this man who kind of comes into this other man's life and everything starts to go horribly wrong for this other man. So that was a really old idea that we just returned to and thought 'actually, this would really work in this context'...
So there is a few we mined from the past; a few ideas in there that we had on the back burner, thinking how could they fit in somewhere.
This format is great, because we're able to do it... next week it is a clean slate and there are no consequences and you can start again.
Presumably you've not used up all your ideas?
We have already got a second series of Inside No. 9. It's great - because it's very rare I think these days that they do just give you a second one - they certainly usually let it go out and see how it fares before they recommission. I think they were really happy with them - I mean they are quality pieces of work I think - we never throw anything together, we really try hard so it does feel like they are finally going 'well actually there is something to cherish about what they do', which is nice.
We found out a few weeks ago but we haven't been saying anything thinking they might do an announcement, but they haven't...
But, yes, we are starting to write those now really. We are not filming until the autumn so we have got a while, but we have got ideas. I love it. I think it is such a great format: you can do anything, as long as you kind of work within the constraints. I don't mind that it kind of leaves you with the challenge of writing something where you don't leave it [the room] - it kind of becomes its own virtue really - you've got to really think about the writing.
A lot of the 'cheats' that you can do when you are writing, you are left without them when you are working on something where you are just maintaining it in the same place. Normally if you've got to do exposition you leave, and then when you return that exposition has been done in the time you have left... so there are tricks like that you are robbed of when you have got to stay in the same room... but it's good - I'm very excited about it, I really hope people like it.
Well, we love the show!
I'm really pleased to hear that. I didn't know what people were going to make of them - the very fact that they are different in tone, you can't get a handle on it - but I think that is kind of what is the joy of it. I remember enjoying Tales of the Unexpected - you knew you were going to get a different story - that didn't quell your happiness for it to return. It was very exciting thinking that it was a new thing again for next week and I think that is what the draw of Inside No. 9 is... There is a tone across it - Steve's and my taste of humour, that's kind of the thing that binds it together - but each week is different. It's broad in some places, but quite dark in the way that you would expect it to be I think.
Talking of your particular blend of humour, the BBC recently offered you the chance to make more episodes of The League Of Gentlemen?
We didn't really have time to do it. The offer came off the back of the interest that we had when we did our little reunion for the Royal Free Hospital charity gig. There was quite a flurry of 'oh are they getting back together?'. The BBC saw that and thought 'oh, right, so people still remember that do they?'... so then we got a call saying 'do you want to do some more of these?', to be linked in with the fifty years of comedy that is being celebrated on BBC Two in April... And it was like 'well, bit late now'. We felt we didn't have time to do it.
But we haven't ever said 'no' to the idea of reforming - this was just the wrong time. In 2019 it will be 20 years since The League Of Gentlemen launched on television... then, maybe, that might be the time to do it.
In regards to your relationship with the BBC, is it frustrating that it's taken them so long to get around to broadcasting Inside No. 9... you filmed Series 1 ages ago!
I know, tell me about it - I have just been sat on it for such a long time - it is so over and done with in our minds - we filmed three over a year ago in December 2012. There was always going to be a gap then, as I was doing this murder drama for ITV and Steve did more Whitechapel and Benidorm, but then we came back together last July and did the other three... and it was all rushed to be finished for September, because it was going to be on the television in the autumn... and then it was stopped again! Even when the week was finally decided, they moved it from the 3rd to the 5th, so I was like "Oh my God!"... I was very gleefully announcing a date, and then they changed it again.
But it isn't because they have got some curse against it and don't want anyone to find it... I hope. I think it is because they are trying to sneak it on when there is nothing else much on - they want it to be 'the thing' of the night's viewing.
It is all a little bit like chasing a rainbow... no one watches television in the same way anymore I don't think, but they [TV executives] still go by the same rules - I think people find things and Sky+ them and watch it at their leisure - they are not dictated to by a scheduler, but there is great stall set in the Overnights [ratings] and all the rest of it, so it still matters to channels how many people actually sit down and watch it on the night. But, anyway, I hope people do watch it one way or another... whether it's on their tablets or on their tellies!
Talking of consuming content in different ways - are there going to be any online extras to accompany the episodes?
There is some content - but it was silly really, in the end we didn't have time to make much. We were filming it and trying to get all the online stuff ready at the same time, so we actually got some other writers to create a kind of webisode - you get different tableaus of the story unfolding, and Dan Skinner has acted in that for us. It's good, it's different and it's kind of like an accompanying episode. We have done some other little bits that are going to come out to accompany each episode of the story... we've got really nice posters for each one of the episodes, so that is a nice little visual content thing.
I don't think it's as much as Psychoville though, because we thought we didn't have time to do it. As it happened, we had oceans of time - we had a year - we could have done it! But, yes, there is some extra content.
Inside No. 9 is on BBC Two on Wednesday nights at 10pm. Below is the trailer.
To find out more about the six episodes see our episode guide