Inside No. 9

Its hard to know which to admire more - the rich and perverse imaginations of Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, or the range of acting talents that has brought this strange and memorable series to life. The final episode is also the most Gothic. A sensible young woman goes to babysit in a refrigerated mansion while its owners, a most unusual brother and sister played by Shearsmith and Helen McCrory, are called away on an urgent matter. Upstairs lurks a bedridden brother who was born inside out. The story is called The Harrowing, named after Christ's descent into Hell to free imprisoned spirits. Babysitting doesn't get tougher than this.

Review: Inside No. 9 - 'The Understudy'

This was another strong episode that was even more confined than usual.

Inside No. 9 review - The Understudy

The Understudy, and the series overall, is a big two-fingers to television executives that believe anthology shows fail to engage audiences, due to the short episodes, illustrating that it's quality of material, not quantity, that matters.

Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton have strong opinions on the subject of stage actors, a theme they explore in this excellent instalment of their dark anthology series. Jim is understudy to Antony, a bellowing thesp. When Tony is drunk during "the Scottish play", Jim's fiance Laura urges him to take the lead, at which point the episode's satirical retelling of Macbeth becomes delightfully apparent. It's a spooky and highly satirical take on actors, Shakespeare and power - and of course, there's a twist in the tale.

Radio Times review

The biggest challenge Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton have set themselves, with this anthology of one-off dark comedies, has been pouring a new story into the pint pot that is half an hour of TV. They manage it with panache here, in another fable of the unforeseeable that gallops unerringly to a horrible conclusion.

Pemberton is a boorish, bitter stage actor taking the lead in the Scottish Play. He's dismissive of his co-stars, the audience and particularly his meek understudy Jim (Shearsmith). But Jim's fiancée isn't willing to let her other half stay stuck in the wings...

It's a magnificent meta-Macbeth, full of daggers before and spots that damn. Knowing the text will take you only halfway and, in any case, the clever plot is really just a vehicle for characters sketched fully in only a few lines, and a torrent of fruity luvvie gags about jealousy, superstition and stage-hogging hams. Delicious.

Preview: Inside No 9: The Understudy, BBC2

This is very much Pemberton and Shearsmith's instalment and they are both brilliant, with one playing an actor on their way up, the other one on their way down.

Another exquisite short story from Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith again poses the question of what these two could achieve with the scope and budget of a movie. Here, however, we are in theatreland, and dressing room nine is that of leading Shakespearean actor Tony (Pemberton) with understudy Jim (Shearsmith) looking unlikely to ever wear the crown. Note: the mentioning of the Scottish play by name does not betray the writers' ignorance of theatrical tradition.

Quality attracts quality. Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton have developed such a track record over the years that many of the finest actors in the country jump at the chance to appear in their dark imaginings. And the pair are never predictable. You might think you know where they're heading, but then suddenly they veer off in an entirely different direction. The episode tonight, set in a West End theatre, appears to be a re-working of Macbeth, with Macbeth's understudy (Shearsmith) being egged on by Lady Macbeth's understudy (Lyndsey Marshal) to seize the crown. "This is your chance" she says. "All you have to do is take it". It's not quite that simple.

Inside No. 9 review

It helps that Pemberton and Shearsmith are such accomplished actors (so complete are their performances, they seem hardly to be acting at all) and that they've signed up so many excellent actors to co-star. Yet it's the writing that's most amazing: the sheer mechanics of the thing.

TV review: Inside No. 9 - 'Last Gasp'

An almost Shakespearean exercise in greed, murder and the triumph of innocence, Last Gasp is a buoyant but wickedly funny chapter in Inside No. 9′s omnibus of twisted tales.