By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Saturday 18 January 2025, running through 5 April 2025 RUNTIME: 140 minutes (including a 20-minute interval) Update: UK tour runs 9 September through 29 November 2025 Tickets

Steve Pemberton (The Pillowman, Duke Of York’s Theatre) and Reece Shearsmith (The Unfriend, Criterion Theatre) are established West End performers and the theatre incarnation of their award-winning anthology TV show Inside No 9 is an elegant full stop to it.

• Read on for reasons including how this is what Pet Shop Boys and Morecambe and Wise would do

Fans of their previous work in TV’s The League Of Gentlemen (Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith) which also made it to the stage will be familiar with the theatre template here which mixes classic work with new material.

Inside No 9 bowed out on BBC2 after 9 series and 55 episodes between 2014 to 2024 which saw the show win Best Scripted Comedy and Best Male Comedy Performance for Pemberton at the British Academy Television Awards with Shearsmith also later being nominated for the same award.

We’ll not say which beloved Inside No 9 episode features heavily here but it feels an appropriate choice given the location and there are also nods to classic episodes throughout Stage/Fright with the hare that featured hidden in each being present and correct in the venue’s circle.

20 years ago we 1st saw Reece Shearsmith onstage opposite the late Helen McCrory in Shakespeare’s As You Like It at the Wyndham’s Theatre and so it seems even more apt that this historic venue should feature so heavily in the action here.

Those less familiar with latest audience theatre etiquette requirements receive an early lesson and the occupant of seat F9 in the stalls receives slightly more attention than they were perhaps expecting.

The programme discusses the location’s history saying: ‘Wyndham’s Theatre is pleasingly haunted by its namesake Sir Charles Wyndham … his presence is often felt as a calm, reassuring hand on the shoulder. Not so calm, however, is the other ghost that is said to reside here …’

Stage/Fright is as genuinely scary, laugh-out-loud funny and weirdly moving as die-hard fans of the series have come to love.

The conclusion is exactly what other icons like Pet Shop Boys and Morecambe and Wise would do (see main picture from the curtain).

Whether this is the final full stop in the history of Inside No 9 or if there will be another chapter, this feels like the perfect way to pause it for now.

The show’s entire run is currently sold out so keep an eye out for returns or an extension because this is certainly goodbye for now and you just might want to express your appreciation for the genius that is Pemberton and Shearsmith in person.

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy Inside No 9 and DMT Tickets
• Have you seen an Inside No 9 show before and what did you think of this 1? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
• Enjoyed this preview? Follow monstagigz on Twitter @NeilDurham, email neildurham3@gmail.com and check us out on Instagram and Facebook