Justin: And do you and Steve go through a process in the writing where you get the script to where you're really happy with it. You've been through different drafts, you've polished it and everything. Does that then go to the producers at that point. And then do you take notes, or is it that whatever you send over, is that the established script, and it doesn't get changed.

Reece: They're quite far down the line.

Steve: We do a lot of drafts as we're writing them. So we wouldn't bother sending in stuff we didn't feel was a go-able or workable draft. And then we obviously have discussions, some of them would be practical, and some of them being tonal. But really by a large, apart from a few times that we've been just been told no, too expensive. Can't do it, which you've got in the in the bottom drawer, like my last cut, boom in the bottom drawer, then, yeah, we tend to be all on the same page.

Adam: Yeah, I think that's right and the thing about Reece and Steve, not only are they great writers, but they're also great script editors. So when you get a script, it's already been through that process of interrogation. It's not just the first draft or the second draft, it's already been worked on several times, most of the time a script will come in and that's basically it, and as Steve says, it's sort of small, tiny things. It's a tonal shift and practical consideration where you move a scene from day to night or something like that, or maybe produce a cast very slightly or tweak it very slightly to change something but most of the scripts are the script.

Justin: I seem to remember in the past you talking about certainly there was one script I think was too expensive for you to do I wonder now your awash with this Manchester cash whether that’s something you’ll revisit or have you already taken the bits off that for other stories

Steve: Yeah we would go and use certain ideas. But no, generally speaking, we like to keep moving forwards. We're not looking back at that stuff that we've written because we think we can, keep doing better. Always hard. 

Justin: Is it hard?

Steve: Yes it always hard writing Series Nine at the moment, and of course, it's hard because we have done so many ways of telling a story and so many ways of turning the story on its head, and we don't want to repeat those. We just want to give the audience the biggest surprises and enjoyable half hour stories. That's the thing that's tricky because by the time we finish will have done 55.

Justin: I know that in a way you probably get bored because people are always asking about when will you bring these characters back, when you do something like that again but actually if ever you're going to do something like that in know you have these phycological  moments a couple of seasons ago, which completely worked and I think one of your fears was running out of ideas. I don’t think anybody’s said that they were pretty pleased. I mean, if ever you gonna do that then I think season nine might be the time to. Just putting it out there.

Steve: Who do you want to see? 

Justin: Well, its good question isn’t it. (To audience) Who would you like to see?

Audience: Harvey and Val 

Steve: Actually, Harvey and Val is written by Jeremy Dyson, largely and a bit of Mark, so we couldn't presume to write those characters. 

Justin: You could have Edward and Tubbs though couldn’t you.

Steve: We're not doing it.

Justin: If you're okay to stay up we might as well get some audience questions for the whole panel. So if you have a question, we've got microphones on either side of the aisle, you wanted to put your hand up in a very polite BFI style. There's somebody there, right in the middle of the row there with a hand up. Then shall we queue it up on this side of the room for anyone that wants to ask question. Yeah, there's a question. over on that side there. Yep. Perfect. Okay, go ahead.

Audience: Hi. Thanks for tonight. It's been very fun. I was just wondering, I remember in the past there's been talk of some kind of Inside No.9 stage production. And I was wondering with the TV show coming to an end if that's something that's still on the cards at all.

Steve: Well yeah its something we still talk about and we will definitely be looking into that but right now our focus is on doing series nine and promoting series eight. But yeah, don't be surprised if you see that coming to fruition. We don't have any definite plans but because they are self-contained, a lot of them happen in real time. They're small cast, they're all one location. So a lot of them do lend themselves to being adapted for the stage. And also we've got the ability to come up with new stories for the stage as well, if we can bloody think of any.

Justin: I know there obviously a convenience with finishing with nine series but I guess you could have called it inside number 32 In which case you’d be doing it forever.

Reece: We should of called it Inside number three. Done years ago.

Justin: Does it need to finish now or it could it still live on in a away?

Steve: It absolutely could and that's why we've said you know, the door is ajar rather than closed and you could easily do specials and stuff like that. But for us I think and for the poor audience I think it's good to know that we are finishing after nine but we won't say lock the door and throw away the key.

Justin: So it could be like Cher’s farewell tour. Just keep going back for one last go.

Steve: Absolutely will do.

Justin: We have a question over here.

Audience: I think it's really incredible that you managed to do these sort of really nuanced fully realised characters in the space of a 30 minute programme. And so I've always kind of wondered whether there's any characters that you found particularly easy or enjoyable to slip into? Or alternatively if there's been any that you've just kind of found a bit harder to take on the mantle of?

Reece: Well, when we did when we returned with Maureen and David that was very enjoyable because we just knew them backward. I remember you saying it was like they’ve never been away, Adam. And slipping back into such sort of grotesque characters really, is not really the tone of the Number 9’s normally, so that was sort of more cartoon like world it made us realise how much we enjoy being just funny. A lot of the number nines now. I mean in no way you could call them comedy. So it's nice to do ones that were just silly and funny but so that playing Maureen again was a great treat and a little tiny reprieve for Mr. Jelly. But I’d very happy play him for the rest of my life.

Steve: I enjoy playing David so much I did it in “Mother’s Ruin” with a subtle difference, but sometimes it's interesting you don't know exactly how you're gonna play the part because you don't know which part you're gonna play. And it is a sometimes a question of talking to directors, doing read throughs and also costume and makeup and so it’s when you've got the whole look and see who you are, you know. With Harry I wasn't entirely sure how to do it and it wasn't until we did the read through because I remember you saying to me ‘Oh, I love that voice’ and I was thinking ‘Oh good because I was just trying something’. But it came together quite well in the read through, didn't it?

Reece: I’m trying to think ones that have been harder. I mean, by the end when you arrive at filming then you’re sort of consigned to knowing what you're going to do and it's not good to feel like there’s anybody that’s seen it so there's not been anywhere I thought I can't do this. I mean, you might the only fear is you the nagging feeling that you've done it before. And you're feeling like you're repeating yourself, which is worse.

Adam: I remember you having that conversation with me about it.

Steve: Yeah, which is weird because I've never done a little Germanic man before. 

Adam: But you kept asking me “oh is this alright?” 

Steve: I wish you'd asked me.

Justin: Any more practice on this side of the room, Tom are you okay, just choosing somebody trusting you. And then over on the side, maybe at the very, very back because often you get missed out. So let's go over here first.

Audience: Thank you for your wonderful shows, by the way. Of all the characters that you've both individually played. Which one would you least like to be stuck in a lift with?

Steve: That's really hard because now I've got to go mentally through the Rolodex of my 48 different characters.

Reece: Just thinking time.

Steve: Do you have one.

Reece: No I don't have one I mean, probably wouldn't be nice to be stuck in a lift with your character from La Couchette.

Adam: Unless you had a shoe box.

Reece: He was quite grotesque.

Steve: Yeah, that’s a good one I’ll take that as my answer. 

Justin: I’m assuming you wouldn’t want to be in a lift with Maureen, would you?

Reece: Oh no I’d get on with Maureen.  

Justin: Well if anything comes to you, just shout it out, maybe in the middle of one of in the Steve's answers. Okay, we've got a question right at the very back over there.

Audience: First of all, thank you for making my favourite show of all time. So the Wikipedia page of Inside No.9 I read years and years ago that there were thoughts of like an online spin off because unlike Inside No.9, A. which would involve other writers besides you two. Is that still on the cards at all? 

Steve: No. We did talk about it and I really do like that idea. 

Reece: It was something that you said off the cuff.

Steve: But I do like the idea me because I think the crucial thing here is how do you get new writers? How do you bring them on? And how do you bring them forward? And so what it used to be sketch shows and now they just won't make sketch shows anymore or people are reluctant to make them because they're quite expensive but how do writers get their first break? It's not easy to come up with a fully rounded six-part sitcom anymore for a new writer is it so I think doing a one idea you know, half hour play or even doing shorter versions, so I did try mate I did.

Justin: And is all this plan for this Amazon freebie remake.

Reece: We’ve no idea 

Justin: I keep seeing online about this.

Steve: It's ongoing it takes a long time to develop stuff, especially over there in America so it's ongoing but we you know, it's not a lot to do with us we're not very involved.

Justin: So that would be a straight remake. 

Steve: We honestly don't know.

Reece: Stop asking. Stop asking questions. Who are you sat in front of us asking questions?

Justin: Why remake it when it's been so good if its good enough for us, it's good enough for them I say. Anybody else got a question up there? 

Audience: Do you ever have characters that come first and you're like ‘fuck I  have to write plot for this”.  How does that work?

Steve: You mean characters come and then okay. No, actually no, we are really story driven. And generally speaking, the characters will come Second, so we, structure and storytelling and how you shape the story, these are things that that we focus on first. I think going back to league of gentleman and what I was saying about sketches, you do put the character first and foremost, and then you put that character in different situations and play with it. But with these, these have to be very tightly written and especially now we've got this sort of yoke on our necks of the twist,

Reece: Yeah, long time.

Justin: With season 9 on the horizon that process has already restarted now. 

Steve: It has yeah, we're doing it at the moment. 

Justin: Anybody from over here? yes, the very vocal person over there. Who didn't even need a microphone.

Audience: I’m just curious about the ways that you guys collaborate with each other and if ever there were some disagreements on the story or tweeks. So how you guys deal with it?

Steve: Yeah, well, it's all a conversation, isn't it? I wouldn’t say we have strong disagreements often, but we will definitely have things where we don't have the same view.

Reece: Yeah, I mean, it's a lot of talk, I think we've got more used to thinking that we can do it so it's not as agonising. But it's getting harder, as we say, we've done we've done so many things, but we'll just talk and talk. And that seems to be our way through avoiding writer's block and thinking we don't know where we're going with. I think we slightly fear writing and not knowing where we're heading. So it's really good to be sure. And sometimes we'll have an ending and not know how to get there. And other times we've got an idea and then need to think could that be expanded into an actual story. And that's what we spend a lot of the time, more time doing that probably than the writing of it, once we know what it is. Which can take a week, once we got the idea but we try to iron out any disagreements and feel our way through what seems to be the best for the story. The story is everything. 

Justin: We've got time for one more question. 

Audience: Hello. Phenomenal as always, I'm here with some friends on a work outing. We work at the Canal Cafe theatre, so we thought we'd come out. Is there anything from those days when you worked there, when you started with the league a gentleman performing on stage? Is there any of those physicalities that you still think back to? Now obviously the first episode we saw was very farcical. Is there anything you learned back in there performing on the stage that you still use now?

Steve: Yeah, I think we use a huge amount of what we learned, you've only go to look at episodes like, it’s called “Weathering Heist” the Commedia dell'arte episode, “Zanzibar”. We have a real theatrical streak in what we do and I think ‘Paraskevidekatriaphobia’, I just enjoy saying it, but that does have that sort of physicality. You can't get much of that physicality in the canal cupcakes. It's about as big as this table. We enjoyed, you know, you bring into bear a lot of theatre training, to television. And really, that's why-

Reece: The performances are huge.

Steve: Yeah I don’t know, there's a lot of single plays, which they do come from, as we said earlier about doing a stage version. So what was the question?

Reece: Yes, I think it's difficult to say. The league was always the best incarnation of it on stage, I think. And that was where we got those big laughs and those reactions and that stays in the mind and doing this play now, it's great to get that nightly reaction from doing it. But this is why this is the TV version where you sometimes have the opportunity to have a reaction to the thing you've filmed, which is never about. You hear about it and how it's gone down sort of from your mom and dad.

Justin: I love the fact you always return to your stage tradition, you know that you're there. On stage at the Criterion Theatre, and Steve you're going to be taking over in a play that’s coming up quite soon.

Steve: Yes, The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh and it’s on in the Duke of York theatre from June to the end of August. 

Justin: Season eight obviously, we've already seen half of it now. It's a huge treat. As I said at the very very start the threshold just keeps going up, up up. It's at the highest level that puts you under a huge amount of pressure season nine. But I know the season is going to be on air in spring. Congratulations, and a really big thank you to all of you. Thank you so much.

Picture from Mother's Ruin. Credit: BBC/James Stack