Inside No. 9

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.

Inside No. 9 - Episode 4 review

Anthology shows rarely hit home runs every single week, but I wouldn't call Last Gasp a bad episode... it was just difficult to develop as a narrative.

Inside No. 9 is scarily funny

Each half-hour playlet is a chiselled gem, as dark as ink and frighteningly funny.

Radio Times review

Having set an unreachable standard in the previous two episodes, Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton ease off a bit here, delivering a tale that's as brilliantly acted and constructed as you'd expect, with several sublime moments - but no knockout blow.

Tamsin Greig plays a friendly but efficient representative of a charity that makes wishes come true for terminally ill children. She brings an Enrique Iglesias-ish pop star to a suburban house. When the visit goes wrong, she and the dying girl's parents (Pemberton and Sophie Thompson) are tempted to take advantage. It's a slight, silly story that can't go anywhere and doesn't. Flawless execution rescues it.

Preview: Inside No 9: The Last Gasp

In the thirty-minute slot it doesn't really go anywhere and it resolves itself a little too simplistically. Not horror, not thriller, just a gently disturbing delve into suburban lives thrown briefly off-kilter.

The grotesque and toe-curling is usually just below the surface where Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith are concerned. In The League of Gentlemen, the fictional town of Royston Vasey - slogan "You'll never leave!" - was sinister in every way, but in this series of one-off tales about houses numbered nine, the cast, characters and setting change from week to week, which allows Pemberton and Shearsmith to demonstrate their formidable talents as writers and actors, and keep their audiences guessing.

Now both in their mid-40s, they 
are at the top of their game. While some of the stories properly give you the creeps, others are just black comedy, 
but there is always a twist. When 
they hit the bullseye, as in the second episode - a silent comedy in which the duo played two hapless thieves tiptoeing around a house occupied by a wealthy 
art collector - they achieve something close to comedy genius.

So what are we in for this week? We meet Tamsin, a little girl who is very unwell. She lives with her parents Jan and Graham in an ordinary 1960s semi and when her birthday comes around, mum and dad want to do something to give her a boost. So they contact a charity called WishmakerUK to arrange a special guest to attend Tamsin's party: Jan's hero, the singer Frankie J Parsons.

The occasion brilliantly captures the sheer unctuousness of fandom. There's Jan in her beige slacks and prim 
lilac jersey, going all giggly and 
high-pitched in the presence of a Beverley Hills tan and a set of highly polished American teeth. Frankie has brought with him an unsmiling flunky with a bluetooth ear piece and is 
escorted by Sally (Tamsin Greig), the groomed PR officer from the charity. It's smiles all round.

But then things take an unexpected turn, in a way that exposes the venality and base instincts lurking behind 
all those fake grins. At the centre of it all, looking worldly and disappointed with the human race, is nine-year-old Tamsin.