Inside No 9 'to end' after series 9

Steve Pemberton: 'We won’t be looking to make any more episodes for the time being'

Inside No. 9 is to end – at least for a while – after the ninth series.

Steve Pemberton, who created the series with Reece Shearsmith says that ‘we won’t be looking to make any more episodes’ once the next two series are in the can.

But he offered fans some good hope by not ruling out a return to the anthology at a later point.

The BBC announced the commission of series eight and nine in April, and the first run of episodes is expected early next year, following the Christmas special The Bones of St Nicholas next week.

But Pemberton told The Sun that would be it for a while.

‘We feel it is a good time to pause Inside No. 9 after we finish filming series nine next year,’ he said.

‘We’re not saying it’s over for good. After all, The League Of Gentlemen came back, but we won’t be looking to make any more episodes for the time being.’

The League of Gentlemen originally aired on BBC2 for three series from 1999 until 2002, returning in 2017 for three anniversary outings.

The Inside No 9 Christmas special features Pemberton as Dr. Jasper Parkway, whose plans to spend Christmas Eve alone in a haunted church are ruined by unexpected guests Pierce (Shearsmith) and Posy (Shobna Gulati) as well as the property's warden warden Dick (Simon Callow).

Pemberton previously said: ‘We discussed many, many different ways of presenting a Christmas special and the one we were really excited by was Christmas ghost stories.’

Shearsmith added: ‘I think it will be great to settle down and watch on a late December night and have your spine tingled.’

Inside No 9: The Bones of St Nicholas airs at 9pm next Thursday.