The creatives behind BBC Two’s hit anthology reveal the view from their once shared sofa. <\/p>
This interview was first published in Radio Times magazine<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n After 10 years, countless stories and plenty of memorable guest stars, Inside No. 9 is coming to a close with its ninth season.<\/p>\n Creators and stars Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton have admitted<\/a> that there \u201cwill be a sadness\u201d to bringing the show to a close, but also believe that \u201cto have not repeated ourselves or started to wane feels like an achievement\u201d.<\/p>\n In a recent interview with\u00a0Radio Times magazine<\/strong>, they chatted more about bringing their BAFTA-winning comedy to a close.<\/p>\n You obviously don\u2019t live together, but if you did, what would the view from the sofa be?<\/strong><\/p>\n Steve:<\/strong> We did live together once, in our late 20s, in a small Highgate flat with a dodgy paint job and a rickety old armchair \u2013 back when you had a VHS attached to your television. There was an Action Man figure on the top of the TV that would be posed in different ways. We would just laugh all the time.<\/p>\n Were there piles of dirty plates and socks everywhere?<\/strong><\/p>\n Reece:<\/strong> It wasn\u2019t squalor: we used to have a rota for the washing-up. We would all stay up to watch the late-night horror double bill on BBC Two.<\/p>\n Steve:<\/strong> I don\u2019t think we ever went full Young Ones. We\u2019d also consume a lot of daytime television. The likes of This Morning and The Time, the Place were big favourites \u2013 John Stapleton or Robert Kilroy-Silk interviewing members of the public. That was before reality television.<\/p> If you two were watching together now, who\u2019d have the remote control?<\/strong><\/p>\n Reece:<\/strong> I\u2019d give it to Steve because I don\u2019t really watch much television. He would probably know what was on and turn it on to the right channel. I don\u2019t tend to get involved in watching reality shows where you\u2019re following fly-on-the-wall type of people. I can\u2019t keep up with it.<\/p>\n Steve:<\/strong> And I\u2019d turn off any constructed reality show. The notion that you\u2019re half performing, half living your real life is not my cup of tea. When you spend half your life trying to come up with creative ideas, the notion of just wandering into the bar and having a conversation\u2026 or maybe we\u2019re missing out, Reece?<\/p>\n What are the funniest shows you\u2019ve watched?<\/strong><\/p>\n Steve:<\/strong> The first time I saw Big Night Out with Vic and Bob, I thought, \u201cOh my God, they\u2019re doing nothing, but everything.\u201d I couldn\u2019t believe how funny they were in what appeared to be utter chaos. They were absolute heroes.<\/p>\n Reece:<\/strong> I remember watching The Larry Sanders Show on a double bill with Seinfeld. The character work, the darkness, being able to see both sides of the entertainment industry and, in the character of Hank, one of the all-time great losers.<\/p>\n You\u2019re both northerners in your 50s, how did those formative years inspire The League of Gentleman, Psychoville and Inside No. 9?<\/strong><\/p>\n Reece:<\/strong> We were big fans of what was on telly when we were little, which was not much, actually \u2013 The Two Ronnies and Victoria Wood, not the swathes of choice you get now. So you\u2019d latch on to things that appeal to you and the northern voices on an Alan Bennett TV play would leap out. You\u2019d think, this really chimes, this is how my mam speaks.<\/p>\n Eventually, we broke through into some sort of success with the world we\u2019d created, Royston Vasey, and it was born from a northern sensibility.<\/p>\n Steve:<\/strong> Ours is a very northern, gothic, horror-tinged, grotesque comedy. As Reece says, we loved watching our northern heroes, and if we can be that to somebody else, it means the world to us.<\/p>\n This is the final season of Inside No. 9 \u2014 is it hard to say goodbye?<\/strong><\/p>\n Steve:<\/strong> I don\u2019t think we regret deciding to finish. Numerically, it\u2019s our little in-joke \u2013 nine series of Inside No. 9. It could easily have stopped after five series, but we were determined to get to that landmark.<\/p>\n Reece:<\/strong> When the last episode is only available on iPlayer, then it really will feel like it\u2019s concluded. There will be a sadness to it but also massive relief that we\u2019ve got to the end without compromising on the high bar we set ourselves. We\u2019ve done 55 different stories now, and to have not repeated ourselves or started to wane feels like an achievement. We\u2019re very proud.<\/p>\n Inside No. 9 returns to BBC Two and iPlayer on Wednesday 8th May 2024. <\/strong><\/p>\n Check out more of our Comedy<\/a> coverage or visit our TV Guide<\/a> and Streaming Guide<\/a> to find out what\u2019s on. <\/strong>For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to\u00a0The Radio Times Podcast<\/a>.<\/b><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n The creatives behind BBC Two’s hit anthology reveal the view from their once shared sofa. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":50871,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/05\/reece-shearsmith-and-steve-pemberton-on-living-together-influences-and-inside-no-9-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/05\/reece-shearsmith-and-steve-pemberton-on-living-together-influences-and-inside-no-9-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/05\/reece-shearsmith-and-steve-pemberton-on-living-together-influences-and-inside-no-9-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/05\/reece-shearsmith-and-steve-pemberton-on-living-together-influences-and-inside-no-9-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/05\/reece-shearsmith-and-steve-pemberton-on-living-together-influences-and-inside-no-9-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/05\/reece-shearsmith-and-steve-pemberton-on-living-together-influences-and-inside-no-9-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/05\/reece-shearsmith-and-steve-pemberton-on-living-together-influences-and-inside-no-9-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The creatives behind BBC Two's hit anthology reveal the view from their once shared sofa.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/50870"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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