Inside No. 9’s Final Series Guest Stars Might Be Its Best Yet

As Reece Shearsmith just announced, it’s the beginning of the end for Inside No. 9. Filming on the horror-comedy anthology’s ninth and final series began in late 2023, which means a wrap on one of the BBC’s most consistently entertaining and inventive shows is imminent.

Oh it's the beginning of the end. #insideno9

— Reece Shearsmith (@ReeceShearsmith) January 8, 2024

Series nine is expected to air in spring 2024, and will add a final six episodes to the existing 49 stories in Shearsmith and co-creator Steve Pemberton’s back catalogue. Barring the first look image above, which shows Pemberton in drag at an underground train station (platform no. nine?), we don’t know anything about the stories, settings or characters yet, but we do know who’ll be ing the pair as guest stars… and it’s a deep bench.

One of Britain’s greatest working actors, Eddie Marsan (The Winter King, Happy Valley – series one of which coincidentally starred Steve Pemberton.

Top British actors Vinette Robinson (Taskmaster fan-favourite Susan Wokoma (Chewing Gum, Year of the Rabbit, Enola Holmes).

Mark Bonnar, a guest star in Line of Duty’s breakthrough second series, and the excellent co-lead in BBC Scotland thriller The Long Shadow’s Katherine Kelly.

Derry Girls, Motherland and The Woman in the Wall’s Philippa Dunne will appear, along with Our Flag Means Death.

And the curveball guest star of the series? That would be former Stars in Their Eyes presenter Matthew Kelly, whose cameo is a fitting one seeing as he once appeared in a 1978 episode of Play for Today, the celebrated anthology series that was one of the original inspirations for Inside No. 9.

Will any of the above end up deserving a place on our celebration of the show’s finest guest performances so far? The odds are good. We’ll bring you a release date, trailer and more info on the new episodes as soon as they’re available.

Inside No. 9 series one to eight are available to stream on BBC iPlayer now.