Have you ever guessed an Inside No. 9 narrative twist? Like the heartbreaking scene in Sheridan Smith’s show The 12 Days of Christine?
Surely the answer is no, because it’s difficult to outwit Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith’s fantastic BBC drama, but have you ever pondered why it’s named Inside No. 9?
For those unfamiliar, each episode of the critically acclaimed series is a self-contained tale that frequently incorporates a combination of distinct reference points, ranging from slapstick humour to gothic horror, all within the same 28 minutes.
Other than the hare, which appears in each installment, one of the few threads connecting within No. 9 is that the events take place within a structure labelled number nine.
But is that just another easter egg, or does the number nine have any meaning? Reece, 53, and Steve, 55, have now revealed the origin behind the smash show’s moniker to Metro.co.uk ahead of the season 8 premiere.
Reece first stated that there was ‘no rationale at all’ for the number nine, stating that they had arrived at it by counting up from one, but later observed that he was intrigued to the alliteration.
Steve continued: ‘It was the alliteration of the number nine: the two “ns” together.
‘But as someone tweeted the other day in Japan it’s a very unlucky number there, although in other cultures it is a very lucky number, so it is mystical.
‘The nine times table is very clever in that it goes 18 which is the one and the eight, two of the seven and three of the six.
‘So it does have that little bit of magic about it- but it was totally arbitrary.’
The couple, who met as undergraduates in Yorkshire, also previewed season 8, which would have episodes set on the top deck of a London bus and a lonely lakeside home.
It will be the final season before Inside No. 9 puts on ‘pause’ next year – appropriately, following series nine.
‘It felt right to get to nine series because of number nine being the magic number of the title,’ Steve said. ‘We’ve never believed we will get to nine but now we’re here we are starting to write the next series.’
Asked if the creative duo were feeling the ‘pressure’ to go out with a bang, the Happy Valley actor replied: ‘We don’t feel the pressure to do anything big unnecessarily.
‘The pressure that we have is just to keep surprising our audience and sometimes that’s going smaller; sometimes it’s going the opposite direction.
He added: ‘We never like to tell people what they’re about to see: you’ve just got to tune in and see what you get each week. But over a series we like to have different flavors, different styles, different genres.
‘We don’t know what we’re going to do yet, but the pressures there, we’ll just see if we can match up to it.’
Inside No. 9 series 8 launches tonight at 10pm on BBC Two and iPlayer.
Source My Celebrity Life.