The star of hit BBC comedy Inside No.9 has paid tribute to the show as it bows out after 10 years on television screens.
Actor and comedian Steve Pemberton, 56, co-wrote the series with Reece Shearsmith, 54, with the programme making its debut on BBC Two in 2014.
The last episode has now been filmed and Steve took to social media this week to share a picture of the final clapperboard.
He wrote: ‘Time to say goodbye to #InsideNo9 having just wrapped series 9.
‘This takes us to 55 episodes, a very decent innings. Mixed emotions but can’t wait to share what we’ve made @ReeceShearsmith.’
Star of hit BBC comedy Inside No.9 Steve Pemberton has paid tribute to the show as it bows out after 10 years on television screens (Steve, right, pictured with co-star and writer Reece Shearsmith, left)
The last episode has now been filmed and Steve took to social media this week to share a picture of the final clapperboard
The cult comedy show – in which every episode features the number nine – was ‘paused’ after nine series last year.
Steve said at the end of 2022: ‘We feel it is a good time to pause Inside No.9 after we finish filming series nine next year.’
The dark comedy featured appearances from the likes of Sheridan Smith, Sir Derek Jacobi, Alison Steadman, the late Helen McCrory, and Keeley Hawes.
Steve previously admitted he and Reece were keen to take the show to the stage and had made some progress with the idea.
He said in 2022: ‘It is definitely on the cards. We have flirted with the idea of doing a play and now we are moving into the heavy petting stage.
‘I think a stage play is good because the episodes are in many ways little theatre pieces.
‘They started off life in our minds as plays and there is no reason why we couldn’t transfer them.’
Reece said last year that he and Steve were ready to create a new long-running TV show.
Filming for BBC Two’s Inside No. 9 stopped this week after its ninth series launch and Christmas special episode last year
He said on the Scarred for Life podcast: ‘It’s just been me and Steve in a room for 10 years doing all these stories. We’re in them of course and that gives it continuity.
‘We are proud of it, the very fact that we’ve got this far in. There’ll be people who will say it should’ve stopped at series two but we’re very happy at the amount of invention that we’re still injecting into them, I think that’s we would have stopped if we thought we really can’t keep it up.
‘The opportunity is lovely, each week to have a clean slate.
‘That’s the tyranny as well, of course, because you’re then left with how do you do it again next week.
The cast of the final series includes Sherlock star Amanda Abbington (pictured in role with Benedict Cumberbatch)
EastEnders actress Anita Dobson is also starring in the final series of Inside No. 9, as well as House of The Dragon’s Phil Daniel, Asim Chaudhry, Claire Rushbrook and Mathew Horne
‘One of the good things about it is that you can have these great highs and people can die and have extraordinary endings.
‘In the world of six half hours about the same thing everything has to reset of course, you can’t really have these huge main characters dying on these things.
‘I think if we ever do anything else after this, which I hope we will, it will be an interesting exercise to do longer storytelling because we’ve done 28-and-a-half minutes for 10 years so it would be nice to try to flex our muscles and do something that is on a bit longer in the way it tells its story. A bit more like a big narrative.
‘Psychoville was really a reaction to doing The League of Gentlemen for so many years and sketches, so we thought let’s do an ongoing story and then we went back to play for today, that’s really what the Number 9s are.’
