The Inside No 9 stars talk about taking it from screen to stage, the secret of their creative chemistry — and why the League of Gentlemen should have one last reunion
Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith have not until now talked about their first — and by the sounds of it last — Inside No 9 play, Stage/Fright, which has just wrapped up a sold-out West End run and will be going on tour in the autumn. It is a show that gets closer to the outright comedy of their earlier work with The League of Gentlemen than you could always depend on from the 55 television episodes of Inside No 9.
Some of those were laugh-out-loud funny, some were macabre, or grim, or touching. Or a mix of all of the above. You never knew quite what you were going to get. Which was very much the point of it. But which also puts you in a pickle if you want to promote a 12-week tour.
“Yes, it’s hard to talk about the show if you want to preserve the surprises,” Shearsmith says. Sitting in the deserted bar of the Wyndham’s Theatre, a few hours before curtain up, he talks quietly to preserve his voice. “For ten years [with Inside No 9] our battle was trying not to talk about it because it’s always better when you don’t know the plot details.”….