The League Of Gentlemen‘s Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton have joined forces again for another twisted outing with Inside No. 9 Series 2, which is scheduled to return to BBC 2 later in 2015. Picking up on the segue-styled comedy show which, as ever with the duo, has already started to pick up a certain cult status, continuing the dark comedy genius that they started out with in The League.
Air date
There wasn’t much warning from the BBC about the air date, as they were being as coy as a nervous mottled gold carp in a tank next to the McDonald’s fillet o’ fish meat grinder, so you may have already missed the fact that the second series of Inside No. 9 started on the 26th March 2014 at 10pm, with the remaining five episode going out weekly on Thursday night at the same time. Principle photography starting in mid January 2015 and filming was underway throughout the first two months of the year to get things ready for the spring viewing.
The good news though for anyone that missed it is that each episode will be available on BBC iPlayer for thirty days after they first air, so you should be able to catch up fairly easily.
Storyline
As in the first series, each episode is a stand alone story in itself, so there is no overarching plot as such. With a new location and completely different characters, it’s a cavalcade of macabre humour and random mentalness. Six episodes are being recorded for Inside No. 9 Series 2, with the first, called La Couchette, taking place on a sleeper train from Paris to Bourg St. Maurice in the French Alps in which screams are expected in the Deuxième Classe.
The second episode is called The Twelve Days Of Christine and centres around the romantic aftermath of a New Year’s Eve Party; episode 3, The Trial Of Elizabeth Gadge, features a witch trial in the backwater village of Little Happens; the fourth episode, Cold Comfort, is set in a volunteer call centre; episode 5, Nana’s Party, is the story of a modern day family get together; and the final episode is called Séance Time, which you can probably guess is about an attempt to contact the afterlife in an old Victorian mansion.
Cast
Shearsmith and Pemberton are the only regulars throughout the series, but there’s a steady stream of guest cast members for each episode. La Couchette stars Julie Hesmondhalgh (Cucumber), Mark Benton (Waterloo Road), Jessica Gunning (Pride), and Jack Whitehall (Bad Education). The Twelve Days Of Christine features Sheridan Smith and Tom Riley (Robin Hood in the Doctor Who Series 8 episode, Robin Of Sherwood), and David Warner, Ruth Sheen, Paul Kaye (Game of Thrones), Jim Howick (Horrible Histories), Sinéad Matthews and Trevor Cooper in The Trial Of Elizebeth Gadge.
Other guest cast members confirmed for the rest of the series includes Alice Lowe (Sightseers), Alison Steadman (Gavin & Stacey), Claire Skinner (Outnumbered), David Warner (Wallander), Jane Horrocks (Trollied) and Michele Dotrice (Big School).
Production
Inside No. 9 is a BBC production written by Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, who also make their directorial debut for two of the episodes for Series 2, with Dan Zeff (Siblings) and Guillem Morales (Julia’s Eyes) holding the reigns for the rest. Its been executive produced by Jon Plowman (Absolutely Fabulous, W1A) and produced by Adam Tandy (The Thick Of It).
First impressions
This is a sure fire winner in our books. Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith have never done anything but impress, whether it the sheer genius of Psychoville Series 2 (“not now silent singer!”) or the breakout class of The League Of Gentlemen. We can’t imagine the second series of Inside No. 9 being anything other than off-kilter comedy gold.
