Inside No.9 will be another hit for black comedy masters Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton

The return of Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton promises black comedy at its very best.

Like The Great Interior Design Challenge, which reaches its final tonight, their new six-part series also takes place in a variety of different houses all over Britain, but there the similarity ends.

Each episode is a self-contained short story that takes place in a house bearing the number 9, and tonight’s opener brilliantly condenses the action even further to a single room.

In a grand old-fashioned house, an engagement party is in full swing and the guests are playing a game of sardines – which is also the title of the episode.

As, one after the other, the guests squeeze ­themselves inside a large wardrobe, every twinge of awkwardness and discomfort is played to perfection as the mood turns darker.

The cast includes Katherine Parkinson, Timothy West, Anne Reid and Anna Chancellor, as well as Shearsmith and Pemberton themselves.

If this first episode is anything to go by, it should appeal to an even wider audience than the duo’s previous cult hits The League Of Gentlemen and Psychoville.

Even fans of Midsomer Murders will get a kick out of Inside No. 9.

The BBC obviously thinks so, too – it has ordered a second series.

Inside No. 9, BBC2, 10pm