From falling off zip wires and breaking bones during filming to what it was like to be back up North, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith share behind the screen scares and secrets about Inside No.9.
The Royal Television Society (RTS) charity hosted an exclusive episode preview from series eight of the BBC Two anthology, which features settings from the top deck of a London bus to a remote lakeside cabin, and episodes about online dating to late-night summonings.
The majority of the new series was filmed in the North West, so it was only right the RTS held the event on April 19 at the Vue Printworks in Manchester.
Unfortunately, screen nine at the Vue was already booked with a showing of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, but screen 18 was packed with fans excited for what was to unfold in the next 30 minutes.
After the episode, the writers of the cherished trio of shows, Psychoville, The League of Gentleman, and Inside No.9 sat down with host Joe McGrath for an in depth conversation about the penultimate series as the ending of the show looms.
Steve, you grew up in Blackburn and Chorley so what was it like to film this series in Manchester?
Steve: “I really enjoyed being up here and being able to see my family at weekends. The first few series we did, we were working with a lot of the same crew, but for this series we worked with lots of different people.
“Bringing in new directors, new DoPs, new designers and it refreshes the show because there isn’t one way of filming Inside No.9, there isn’t a template that we’re trying to achieve so we love mixing it up in that way.
“We had an absolutely fantastic crew on series 8 who did the Christmas special, The Bones of St Nicholas, all the way through to this one and I think we’re hopefully going to come back and do some more here as well.”
What was Manchester like for you, Reece?
Reece: “It was tiring because I broke my foot in the middle of filming all of it which didn’t help but it was great to be up North, it was nice.
"It didn’t feel like it was compromising anything, it was fine. It was all for extra money for the show so I think bringing the work up North really helps it so we found it lovely.
“All of The League of Gentleman was obviously nearby so it’s a home from home really.”
What was the toughest day on set of series eight?
Steve: "I think it was the bones of St Nicholas which we had on at Christmas where I had to be hanging from the scaffolding. That’s not comfortable because they put you in a harness and you've got straps all over and you’re dangling.
“It was like when I was at Center Parcs and fell off one of the zip wires with no one helping me and there was a load of people with their phones out going, ‘it’s him off Benidorm!’
“But the toughest day on set was definitely being hanged on The Bones of St Nicholas.”
What advice would you give a young aspiring writer trying to make it in the business?
Steve: “Writing is something you can do any time and anywhere, it’s not like acting where you are looking for someone to give you an opportunity.
"From our point of view, we only started writing to give ourselves little acting jobs to do and it kind of grew and grew. It’s like anything, the more you do it the better you get.
“Get your stuff read out because there will always be actors who will sit round a table and find a theatre or go online and get an audience to respond to it.
“You’ll learn so much from that because we certainly did in the early days of The League of Gentlemen. So just perseverance and keeping going.”
Are there any genres or styles you would like to explore but you haven’t yet?
Steve: "We’ve always wanted to try and do a musical. We’ve never done a Western – it’d be a bit hard to do for Inside No.9 with a saloon.
“We have covered so many different genres now and we enjoy starting off in one genre and turning it into something else.”
What’s next for you after this series?
Steve: "We’ve talked very loosely about doing a stage show and it’s something we’ll definitely have a think about.
“We love our back catalogue. There’s a possibility we might take The League of Gentlemen on the road again some time in the near future but we do want to come up with a new idea.”
Series eight of Inside No.9 returned to BBC Two and BBC iPlayer on April 27 with the finale episode airing on Thursday, May 25 at 10pm.
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