Thanks to Chuckie for the scan.

WHEN it came to casting their characteristically disturbing new BBC2 comedy, Inside No. 9, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith wanted the best. But even they were surprised when Bond girl Gemma Arterton, who starred with Daniel Craig in Quantum Of Solace, agreed to appear.

By: James Rampton

“Approaching Gemma was a punt,” admits Steve, 46. “We wanted to set out our stall and cast someone with more of a film name. We were pleasantly surprised when she said yes immediately. It’s not every day you get a Bond girl!”

Anne Reid, Tamsin Greig, Anna Chancellor and The IT Crowd’s Katherine Parkinson also appear in the new six-part series, an anthology of creepy, comic standalone stories linked by the fact they are all set at a different No. 9.

Reece, 44, who co-writes and co-stars with Steve in the comedy, says, “We sent the script to Gemma thinking, ‘She’ll never do it, but we might as well aim high.’ When she agreed, I asked her, ‘Why are you doing this?’ and she replied, ‘I don’t get scripts like this very often’. It’s lovely to hear it’s about the scripts. It’s a real compliment to the writing.”

The series draws on the dark humour Steve and Reece developed in The League Of Gentlemen and Psychoville.

“We always enjoy mixing the unsettling and the comic,” says Steve. “You can’t have one without the other. We’ve attempted to write straightforward sitcoms, but darkness keeps seeping under the door.”

Reece met Steve, Mark Gatiss and Jeremy Dyson, co-creators of The League Of Gentlemen, while studying drama in Yorkshire. Steve and Reece are noted for playing multiple roles but don’t dip into the dressing-up box much for this.

Reece says, “We wanted to make it more real, where we can’t get out of things by having Steve dress as an old woman or me as an old man.”

Inside No. 9, Wednesday, 10PM, BBC2

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