WHATEVER AGE you are, being summoned to the boss’s office is always a nerve-shredding experience. It was that day in 2012 when Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith found themselves in the throne room of BBC Two boss Janice Hadlow, when they didn’t know if their series, Psychoville, was going to be enthusiastically renewed or brutally axed. In the event, they were told that the show, the pair’s first self-penned sitcom after the 2002 pausing of The League Of Gentlemen, was being quietly put down. Except, asked Hadlow, did they have any other ideas?
Inspired by a rogue, confidently contained episode of Psychoville (series one, episode four, if you’re looking) the pair cobbled together a pitch that would hark back to some of the spine-chilling anthology shows of their youth.
“It was a very vague notion of a show with no particular rules to it,” reveals Steve Pemberton to SFX. “We liked the idea of a limited location, a small cast and telling a story with a beginning, a middle and an end.”
It’s worth remembering that, in 2012, anthology shows had long been out of fashion. Black Mirror had blinked into existence the year before, but wasn’t yet the blazing cultural firework it is today. With no returning characters, no cliffhangers and no continuing storyline, there was, in many TV commissioners’ heads, the lingering question of why a viewer would ever bother to tune in the following week. It was an epic gamble for BBC Two, but one that would pay off handsomely.
“TV generally at the moment is very disposable,” suggests Reece Shearsmith, a long-time fan of anthology shows, “but I think with Inside No. 9 we’ve managed to make something that lingers in the mind.”
This story is from the February 2020 edition of SFX.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the February 2020 edition of SFX.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
ANCER MAHAGEMENT
WITH A NEW TRILOGY IN SIGHT, WE SPEAK TO THE DIRECTOR OF 28 WEEKS LATER THE ORIGINAL CHILLING SEQUEL TO DANNY BOYLE'S SEMINAL SURVIVAL HORROR
WHO YA CONNA CALL?
BEHIND THE SCENES AT HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS FOR GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE
SPEAK OF THE DEVIL
THE DEVIL'S HOUR STRIKES TWICE AS THE GENREDEFYING DRAMA RETURNS
SCARRY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK
FROM THE RETURN OF EC COMICS TO SCREAM!, THIS YEAR'S HALLOWEEN OFFERS UP HORROR COMICS FOR ALL THE AGES
UNDEADS REFLECTIONS
NEIL JORDAN ON BRINGING ANNE RICE'S MODERN VAMPIRE CLASSIC TO SCREEN, 30 YEARS ON
MUNSTER MASH!
PRODUCTION HELL, SHOCK RECASTING AND HOTLY CONTESTED AUTHORSHIP. AS THE MUNSTERS CELEBRATE THEIR 60TH ANNIVERSARY, WE UNCOVER HOW THE SPOOKY SITCOM WAS ALMOST DEAD ON ARRIVAL
COMING TO AMERICA
THE MOGWAI LIVE THE AMERICAN DREAM IN THEIR SECOND CHAPTER, GREMLINS: THE WILD BATCH
BEING HUMAN EVOLUTION
IT MAY HAVE BEEN AN INSTANT HIT, BUT BBC THREE'S DARKLY COMIC DRAMA ABOUT A HOUSE-SHARING VAMPIRE/WEREWOLF/GHOST TRIO HAD A STRANGE JOURNEY TO THE SCREEN, SERIES CREATOR TOBY WHITHOUSE TELLS SFX
THE MAINE EVENT
THE DARK IS RISING IN SALEM'S LOT AS STEPHEN KING'S DEATHLESS TALE RETURNS TO THE SCREEN
WHY DON'T YOU STAY FOR A BITE?
THE VAMPIRE COMES HOME AS DIRECTOR EUROS LYN WELCOMES SFX TO HIS NEW DARK COMEDY THE RADLEYS