heyWatching Inside No. 9 from the beginning was one of the most enjoyable TV experiences I’ve seen this year. Although it started in 2014, I admit I had some serious work to do, having only watched the odd episode here and there. This is one of the benefits and drawbacks of anthology series: each episode stands alone, so it’s very easy to dip in and out of. When I finally committed, just in time for its last series, I realized I’d missed a modern classic.
Inside No. 9: The Party’s Over, after nine series and 10 years, recounts its demise with a behind-the-scenes documentary, mostly pulled as those final episodes were filmed. Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith guide the audience through this modest victory tour, filming each other on their phones, pulling out old photos of them sharing a flat in the 20s, looking through a scrapbook containing The League Of Gentleman contains clippings and reviews and notebooks with single lines. It is written in them that will be shaped in some of the most recent installments of Inside No. 9.
Pemberton looks ready for it; Shearsmith has a stubborn reluctance. “Half of us agreed that we were going to make a documentary in some form or another,” says Pemberton. For fans, and I now consider myself a big fan, it’s a gift, the equivalent of a DVD special with a director’s commentary, decent trivia and lots of Easter eggs. I feel less bad knowing that a rabbit appears in every episode, knowing that Ophelia Lovibond, who starred in the first episode, Sardines, is similarly surprised by the news.
There is a lot of detail. We meet the designer of those horror-tribute posters. We meet the composer of the sting that begins each episode, and discover that what he originally composed was rejected at the last minute, so he composed it an hour before the scheduled time, with only one Finished it within minutes. We meet the producer, the director, the costume designer. It’s a glimpse into how a TV show is made when each episode is so innovative, it’s more interesting than you expect. Seeing how they filmed Mulberry Close, where the viewer only sees footage that is captured on the doorbell camera, is fascinating.
There have been 49 episodes, so it can’t go into detail about each one, but it takes a few episodes and tells us more about them. As its debut, Sardines is a perfect representative of what the series does. The setup is smart: stagey, dramatic and self-contained, it has an amazing cast and builds toward a horror-twist that makes your stomach lurch. For those who like to know how filming goes inside the wardrobe, there is some old footage from the set, which is also satisfying for those of us who want to know how the actors sat in the wardrobe for half an hour. Why talking to others is so smart and effective.
It explores deadline, live episodes. Creator Adam Tandy says that he usually hates live episodes, because people only watch to see if it will go wrong. Naturally, he incorporated “being wrong” into its fabric. And of course, it focuses on Christine’s 12 Days, which may be the most disastrous Christmas special ever and certainly represents Inside No. 9 at its peak. He says, when he saw that the cameraman was crying, he knew that the matter was on point.
Pemberton and Shearsmith have played more than 50 characters themselves, but starring in Inside Number 9 feels like a rite of passage for British actors. Katherine Parkinson and Lovibond are reminiscent of sardines. Mark Bonnar, who played an angry Tube passenger in the episode Boo to a Goose, says it is a British institution. Nick Mohammed, who appeared in Simon Says, works overtime and briefly interviews Pemberton and Shearsmith. However, the most informative conversations are the ones they have among themselves. They have worked together for 30 years and still share an office. Learning about their horrific office tradition feels like being let in on a little secret.
That’s what Inside No. 9 can do. It may be over for good, but the party isn’t over yet. It’s also an advertisement of sorts for what Shearsmith says will actually be its final work, a stage version that will open in London early next year. For fans, there are many anecdotes, facts, and technical details that break this unique show down into its component parts. For a more casual audience, it can be a little cloying at times. But it’s a timely reminder of what treasures await on iPlayer if you, too, want to go back to the very beginning.
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