Across five series, a chilling Christmas special, and a knockout Halloween episode that broadcast live in the moment, Inside No. 9 continues to be one of the smartest, most satisfying shows on TV. Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton’s anthology show presents a series of one-off 30-minute stories taking all kinds of different shapes – comedies, horrors, thrillers, affecting dramas (or all of the above), some grounded, some campy or theatrical, and always unexpected. Now the duo is back with Series 6 on the BBC, dishing up six brand new twist-filled tales. “It feels like we’ve got six new ideas we haven’t done,” Shearsmith tells Empire of the upcoming series in the new issue. “Tonally, there’s a very silly, slapstick one, and then we’ve got far more psychological stories.”
Check out an exclusive image from upcoming episode ‘Wuthering Heist’ – which finds Shearsmith and Pemberton donning theatrical masks.
“We’ve both done acting training and we did a lot of mask work at our college, so we thought, ‘Let’s use our mask work – but mixed with a heist movie,” says Pemberton. “What is it like to mash up commedia dell’arte with Quentin Tarantino?” Elsewhere, there’s an episode called ‘Simon Says’, which Pemberton says is “about the world of television and a writer engaging with a fan of his”. As ever, the new series is all about variety. “We’ve got one set in a seedy hotel room, we’ve got one set in a static caravan… we’ve got a good mix.”
Read Empire’s full Inside No. 9 story in the upcoming Tom Hiddleston issue, on sale Thursday 15 April and available to pre-order online now here. Inside No. 9 Series 6 is coming soon to BBC Two.