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Don't miss: Inside No 9 series four

Inside No 9 returns to BBC Two on January 2
Inside No 9 returns to BBC Two on January 2 Inside No 9 returns to BBC Two on January 2

NEVER mind the return of The League of Gentlemen, Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton are bringing their best television creation back to our screens in the New Year – Inside No 9.

Series four of the writer/actor duo's reliably brilliant anthology show commences on Tuesday January 2 with an episode titled Zanzibar: set in a London hotel, the series opener has been written entirely in iambic pentameter, as has its promotional blurb:

"Welcome to London's Hotel Zanzibar, our varied guests have travelled from afar. Proposals, plots and prostitutes combine, for a comedy of errors on floor nine."

That's the kind of quirky choice Shearsmith and Pemberton can get away with by virtue of their sheer skill as writers who revel in penning such memorably unusual half-hour stories: having already wowed viewers with the 'silent' episode A Quiet Night In from series one, the fourth series of Inside No 9 features an instalment which unfolds in reverse chronological order.

Set your series links now.

:: Inside No 9, Tuesday January 2, 10pm.