The League Of Gentlemen’s Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton are back with Inside No 9. Jeananne Craig discovers why the spooky show was right up their street

THEY’RE responsible for some of TVs darkest creations, from the grotesque villagers in The League Of Gentlemen to a hook-handed clown and a murderous man-child in Psychoville.

Now Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton are back with the BBC2 comedy series Inside No 9, which promises to be just as deliciously macabre.

Written by and starring the pair, the show consists of six standalone stories about the peculiar goingson at different houses with the same door number.

With genres ranging from gothic horror to psychological thriller, the series is, as Shearsmith promises, “undiluted us”.

The pair met at college and went on to form The League Of Gentlemen with friends Mark Gatiss, who started life in Sedgefield, and Jeremy Dyson.

“We have lunch a lot. We both have kids in the same school and we live very close to each other in North London, so we see each other pretty much all the time,” says Pemberton, who has three children – Lucas, 13, Madeleine, 11, and Adam, eight – with partner Alison.

But he admits that, a bit like the homes in Inside No. 9, things aren’t completely average in his household.

“I’ve got three severed heads in my study, which we used in Psychoville. One is my face and head carved into a pumpkin, which is quite horrible,”

he reveals.

“The kids take it in their stride really. That’s what their dad does.”

Pemberton’s children are yet to watch his darker work, while Shearsmith is also protective of his children, Danny, nine, and Holly, 11, with wife Jane.

“I’m quite puritanical – they’ve not seen anything I’ve done, apart from Horrible Histories (shown on BBC). They know I do weird things. I think they’ve seen some pictures of League Of Gentlemen, but they haven’t watched it yet.

“They’ll have a treat, a back catalogue when they’re old enough. When they’re about 25,” he laughs.

Pemberton adds: “When I was 13, I’d watched horror films I Spit On Your Grave and The Exorcist.

There wasn’t the same control as now, parents didn’t know what you were doing. You’d go down to the video library and get whatever you want.”

“And we turned out all right,” adds Hull-native Shearsmith, as the pair break into laughter.

Their spine-tingling childhood viewing which provided the inspiration for anthology series Inside No. 9. “It used to be such fun to watch Tales Of The Unexpected or Hammer House Of Horror and just get a one-off story,” Shearsmith explains.

“You can enjoy the twists and turns and the fact it’s got great character actors in, and it seemed right up our street to do that.”

The series boasts a stellar cast with appearances from veteran actor Timothy West, Bond star Helen McCrory and Hollywood darling Gemma Arterton.

Episode one sees an eclectic bunch of partygoers play the children’s game Sardines. As guests step one by one into an old wardrobe, the atmosphere gets more and more claustrophobic – particularly when one foul-smelling guest, Stinky John (played by comedy actor Marc Wootton), clambers in.

“Our first consideration was, ‘can we get 12 people in a wardrobe?’ So when we did the script readthrough, the designer bought a wardrobe off eBay and we checked whether we could all get in it, and shut the door,” Pemberton says.

“Luckily, we all got on. It would have been awful if there had been a real Stinky John.”

Shearsmith and Pemberton have plenty of more mainstream roles on their CVs – Pemberton’s credits include Doctor Who, Whitechapel and sunsoaked sitcom Benidorm, while Shearsmith is set to star alongside Sheridan Smith in ITV’s upcoming factual crime drama The Widower.

So what makes them keep returning to the macabre?

“We always feel slightly unfulfilled if we write something that’s purely comedic, it just feels too frivolous and light,” Shearsmith explains.

“Most television, you flick around and its all kind of the same, really.

Not to sound arrogant, but if you stick with our things for one minute, they’re so arresting, because they’re uncompromising and have a very strong flavour and vision. You might not like it, but they’re very sure of themselves.”

Pemberton adds: “Sometimes you do just want to have the TV on in background, but as Reece said, we like things which you have to lean forward into and really concentrate on.

“You want what you’ve done to be remarkable, and you want people to really remember it, and that’s what were striving for in our writing.”

  • Inside No 9, BBC2, Wednesday, 10pm