reece shearsmith
With BBC3 due to become an online channel in 2015 I guess the BBC needs to get viewers used to going to iPlayer to watch original content online and not just last night’s episode of EastEnders. To nudge comedy fans in the right direction the Beeb invited a group of famous comedians to make a programme that they had always dreamt about making. The resulting six comedy shorts are pretty mixed, but the one thing one can definitely say about them is that they are very varied in tone. Some are surreal, some are discreetly political.
Draw the curtains, turn off the light. It's the last Inside No 9, sob, and it's a genuine fright fest. In The Harrowing Helen McCrory and Reece Shearsmith play two creepy reclusive siblings, Tabitha and Hector, who offer schoolgirl Katy (Aimeé-Ffion Edwards) £88 to house-sit for them for eight hours while they have a rare night out. All Katy needs to do is keep an eye on things and, under no circumstances, visit their sickly brother Andras in the top room…
A striking return to form for Inside No 9 this week with The Understudy, which is not set in a house for once, but in dressing room number 9. Steve Pemberton very much takes centre stage at the start as Tony Warner, a grand, egocentric Shakespearean actor trying to stay off the wagon while starring in Macbeth. Reece Shearsmith is his understudy, biding his time quietly for his big break.
Every delicious box of luxury chocolates has to have a dud in it that is left in the bottom layer after all the favourites have been snapped up. In the case of the brilliantly tasty Inside No. 9 it is this week's instalment, The Last Gasp.
When I interviewed Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith about their new anthology series Inside No. 9, Steve Pemberton suggested that there might have been concerns among the BBC's upper echelons that there was no continuing character, nobody to get your teeth into and come back to week after week. Well, having seen two episodes now, it doesn't matter – their tales-of-the-unexpected concept is clearly the thing to get your teeth into and make you come back week after week.
For those that were sorry to see the end of the brilliant Psychoville after two series the good news is that Inside No 9 is possibly even better. Certainly just as horribly funny in places. The BBC is clearly behind Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton's new six-part series of self-contained stories, airing plenty of trailers to tantalise the viewer. And it definitely starts off in style with a chilling, claustrophobic chamber piece entitled Sardines.
Is it really eight years since I interviewed Reece Shearsmith? Eight years since the League of Gentlemen's movie came out? This interview originally ran in the Evening Standard to coincide with The League of Gentlemen's big screen debut, and also Shearsmith's appearance as Jaques in As You Like It at Wyndham's Theatre.
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