Inside No. 9

Shearsmith and Pemberton interview each other

We listened in as these writer-actors became journalists for the afternoon. Pickled werewolf foetus, anyone?

As a big fan of The League of Gentlemen and Psychoville, I'd really been anticipating Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith's new series for some time. I have to say I wasn't disappointed with the first helping of Inside No. 9, primarily due to the great writing from Pemberton and Shearsmith. The script combined the two things they're best at; doing namely awkward comedy and sinister conclusions. The fact that at least half of the episode took part inside a wardrobe was a bold move but one that worked brilliantly. I have to say I laughed almost all of the way through and the duo make you anticipate some of the gags before they happen, especially in the case of 'Stinky John'.

The final act of the story was expertly done and left you re-thinking what had happened once the episode had finished. While I'm a little upset that the duo aren't doing another linear series, as character progression is something they thrive upon, I think it's great that they're being allowed to experiment in this way. After having watched the second episode I can also report that it's completely different from this week's instalment apart from that sinister tone that Pemberton and Shearsmith have perfected over their time together.

Shearsmith and Pemberton's 'knock knock' jokes

In Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton's latest series, Inside No. 9, each episode focuses on the murky characters behind a door marked 'number nine'. Hang on, isn't there an old joke format involving doors?

Inside No. 9 full of entertaining weirdness

The obvious inspiration was Roald Dahl's Tales Of The Unexpected and it's no mean compliment to say that Inside No. 9 held its own against Dahl's bizarre short stories.

Inside No. 9 episode 1 review: Sardines

Looking for a refreshingly different bit of British telly? Look no further than the new comedy drama series Inside No. 9.

Review: Inside No. 9, BBC Two

There was much to enjoy in beautifully nuanced performances, particularly by Tim Key and Katherine Parkinson.

It has been a long march for The League Of Gentlemen's Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith since their original (very original) TV series in 1999. With each subsequent venture they have scrambled farther over the top. Inside No. 9, a series of one-off plays each taking place at a different address starting with 9, represents a retreat to firmer ground.

Last night's debut was much less fantastical than their last series Psychoville, free of prosthetics and cross-dressing. It dealt, as per, with incest and abuse, but in the manner that Alan Ayckbourn might. The Greek ruled that plays should take place over a single day in a single place. Sardines occurred over half an hour in a single wardrobe. It occupied a wall in an outsized family house, the scene of uptight daughter Rebecca's engagement party. Childhood momentum had propelled her and brother Carl (Pemberton), a man barely out of the closet and about to enter a wardrobe, into a game of sardines that no one wanted to play.

Katherine Parkinson's Rebecca was a superb study in congenital dissatisfaction, about to marry a man whose previous lover is not only still on his mind but in the wardrobe. The whole party ends up in there, including the dull, quiet one (beware the dull, quiet ones, they are usually the writers' surrogates). It is Carl, though, who outs the elephant in the wardrobe, a sexual assault on a child by his bullying father: "I was teaching the boy how to wash himself!" responds the father.

Anne Reid, Julian Rhind-Tutt and Anna Chancellor must have so enjoyed getting dialogue in which each sentence was minutely crafted for them. My favourite line may even have come from Timothy West as the patriarch complaining at a transgressing of sardine rules: "This isn't hide-and-go-seek". Was that posh for "hide and seek" or a unique verbal corruption?

Sardines was a disciplined comedy, but a little bit of discipline, as one of the League's perverts might say, never did anyone any harm. Save for the Tales of the Unexpected twist, I loved it.

Review - Inside No. 9: Sardines

It's been a long time since TV embraced the anthology format, but if it creates episodes as classy as these, it could be time for a revival - although it's hard to envisage who else could pull it off as skilfully as these League Of Gentlemen alumni.

Inside No. 9 - comedy makes a triumphant debut

Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton have created a masterpiece.

TV review: Inside No. 9 - 'Sardines'

Subtle and disciplined, laden with biting humour and occasional barbs of unsettling suspense, its cleverness is laid bare in the cold light of post-revelation day.