Trouble and strife

Anita Dobson plays the wife of an East End gangster as twisted anthology Inside No. 9 returns

- CAREN CLARK, SEAN MARLAND

NEW COMEDY

Inside No. 9

Thursday, 10pm (times vary), BBC2

Anita Dobson became a household name for playing Walford landlady Angie Watts in the 1980s and now the former soap star is heading back to the East End as Inside No. 9 returns to BBC2.

The eighth series of Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton’s comedy anthology resumes with a gory tale of sinister spirits this week. The episode – entitled Mother’s Ruin – begins with brothers Edward (Shearsmith) and Harry (Pemberton) breaking into the house that once belonged to their mother with a plan to summon her ghost.

DARK FORCES

They’re hoping to discover where their late mum stashed all her cash. But when the house’s current owners, gangster Reggie Stone (Phil Daniels) and his wife Frances (Dobson), return home unexpectedly, things take a very macabre turn.