Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton reflect on the finishing of Inside No. 9 as they make the final series in documentary The Party’s Over
“It’s been a great adventure these last 10 years”
With Inside No. 9 having completed its televisual journey earlier this year, The Party’s Over is a documentary that follows series creators Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton as they filmed their ninth and final series. But more than just a behind-the-scenes look, it is also a reflection on the ten years of making the show, with interviews with long-serving crew members and guest cast stars and also looking even further back as well as Shearsmith and Pemberton talk about the decades of their personal and professional partnership.
It’s an entertaining look past the curtain in terms of the making of the show. Looking at the attention to detail on every wig and costume, breaking down the challenges of the single doorbell camera of Mulberry Close and how to pack 10 actors into a wardrobe as they did for the first ever episode Sardines, brief moments of on-set corpsing, and any number of previous guest stars lavishing inordinate amounts of praise on the creatives (there’s perhaps a bit too much of this as little insight is offered alongside the fulsome praise).
What is more fascinating is the deeper chat about the genesis of the show and the audacious confidence and decision-making that went into getting an anthology series like this – with no set template or genre – commissioned and successfully made. Not only that, they continued that success for 10 years and 9 series, largely because of that freedom they were able to secure for themselves and for all that, Shearsmith and Pemberton still feel a little bemused as to all this success. They’re mainly just pleased that they’ve been able to work on something they’ve loved doing for so long.
