Inside No 9 to celebrate Halloween with live episode set in a graveyard

Inside No 9 are in for a (trick or) treat this Halloween.

The anthology series will be returning for its 25th episode this month, and this time, it will be live.

Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton have confirmed Inside No 9 will be returning on 28 October for a special live edition called Dead Line.

The pair have promised a horror-filled episode rather than a comedy romp, and the blurb is as follows: When Arthur Flitwick (Steve Pemberton) finds an old mobile phone in his local graveyard, he makes the mistake of trying to contact the owner.

But some mysteries are best left unsolved, and as Halloween draws near Arthur is plunged into a nightmare of his own making. It seems that no good deed can go unpunished, in this world or the next.

Speaking about the live episode, Steve said: Its an unusual prospect for us – weve never done anything like this before. Its much more like how they used to do it in the old days – a lot of prep, a lot of build-up, and one chance to get it right.

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It was actually the BBCs suggestion, and when someone puts that challenge down it is really impossible to ignore. Especially as we have done other things like a whole silent episode, a musical episode and one set entirely in a wardrobe. We like the idea of putting a challenge into what we are doing.

While the idea of a live episode would be daunting for, well, everyone, Reece has brushed off the nerves, saying: Im not that nervous about it… maybe its wrong to feel that, but having just done League Of Gentlemen Live for months, I feel that if we rehearse it well enough we will be all right. Its like doing a play, you cant get your lines wrong.

Dead Line will be a contemporary tale, also starring Stephanie Cole, with Steve explaining: It is set in a No.9, as ever of course, and there is a man who I am going to play called Arthur and hes coming home one night and finds an old telephone in a graveyard. He brings it home and tries to find out who owns it and thats what kicks off the story. Obviously with it being a Halloween episode it is quite a spooky story and we wanted to draw on the lovely Halloween special creepiness of EC Comics and Tales From The Crypt.

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And the Halloween ep will give the team a bit of practise, as Reese teased: We have a few [different versions of Inside No 9] in series five. There are some things that are going to be very challenging.

Every episode of Inside No 9 is set in a house, room or building with the number nine, and has seen stories set in everything from a seance, to a wardrobe, to a sleeper carriage.

Series five of Inside No 9 will return next year.

The live Halloween episode, Dead Line, will air on BBC2 at 10pm on 28 October.

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