TV review: Inside No 9

This is classy TV, a cracking start to an anthology, in which each episode offers fresh delights unlike the last. Bring on No 2 in this bunch of No 9s.

TV review: Inside No. 9

Spattered with gags both smart and puerile - suicide and explosive diarrhoea have rarely gone hand in hand in such a climatic finale - and rounded off with the sort of smart, subversive closing moments Inside No. 9 has become known for, La Couchette is perhaps more accessible than some of its previous bedfellows, and a solid opening to a very welcome series.

Inside Number 9 review: 'deliciously wicked'

Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton gave us a ruthless dissection of human foibles, from an attempt to open a zip as quietly as possible to, well, murder.

'Inside No. 9' Season 2 Episode 1 review

But here's the thing: the two creators of Inside No. 9 are simply too good writers to be satisfied with simple fart jokes. More than that - and this is a separate point, though clearly related - they always make their scripts work very hard with every single line.

Inside No. 9: Was the first episode worth the wait?

Despite starting off with a succession of fart jokes (while I too have a childish sense of humour - fart jokes? Come on...) Inside No. 9 remains resolutely a comedy and the cast mined their cramped surroundings for laughs.

League duo open door to Inside No 9

League of Gentleman and Psychoville duo Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton are looking relaxed ahead of the second series of their dark comedy Inside No 9.

Inside No. 9 - La Couchette preview

It is not just the dramatic elements that work, but also the comedy. Anyone familiar with Shearsmith and Pemberton's work will already be familiar with their dark comic tone.

Last year A Quiet Night In, the second and silent instalment of this series, garnered much deserved praise, but every one of these six modern tales of the unexpected were vignettes of cunning precision. Every word, every line, lifted the curtain a smidgeon more, although what the curtain obscured thwarted where our expectations had led us. Few write with such disguised economy, or catch us as unawares, as this pair.

Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton's jocular devilry and creeping terror returns for this new run with La Couchette, where the occupants of sleeping berth number nine endure a terrible night's sleep. By contrast next week's standalone film, The 12 Days of Christine, is as haunting a piece of TV you'll watch this year.

The dark imaginations of Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith are back with six more self-contained, bleakly comic dramas set in different locations, all of which have a No 9 on the door.

Tonight's opener has echoes of the very first episode of all, in which a diverse assortment of characters at a country house squeezed into a cupboard during a game of sardines. The difference here is that the characters - an anally retentive doctor, a flatulent German, a British couple on the way to their daughter's wedding, a rude Australian backpacker et al - squeeze into a tiny couchette on a train out of Paris. You may think you know where it is headed, but don't be so sure...

Those masters of the dark arts, the former League Of Gentlemen co-stars Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, return with a second instalment of their deliciously macabre shorts, the first series of which won best comedy performance at the Royal Television Society awards last week.
Like a Tales Of The Unexpected for the 21st century, each perfectly formed 30 minutes offers a masterclass in storytelling: witty, imaginative, inventive and suspenseful - with a clever twist at the end for good measure.
The six tales are linked by the number nine and in the opening episode, La Couchette, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Mark Benton, Jessica Gunning and Jack Whitehall join Pemberton and Shearsmith on board the sleeper train from Paris to Bourg-Saint-Maurice. They're a motley collection trying to get a quiet night's sleep as the train makes its way across France, but as the sleeping compartment fills up, the chances of that begin to look highly unlikely...
The setting for future episodes include a séance in the grand Victorian villa, a modern-day family get-together, a 17th-century village witch trial and a volunteer call centre, with Alison Steadman, Claire Skinner, Jane Horrocks, Paul Kaye and Tom Riley among the cast. Special mention must go to Sheridan Smith, however, for her performance in next week's offering, The 12 Days Of Christine, a powerful, moving story of one woman's rocky journey through life. It is an absolute gem, one of the best things I have seen on television this year.