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Inside No. 9 Complete Collection Limited Edition Blu-ray Box Set Review: Is It Worth $148.99?

$ 148.99

The Inside No. 9 Blu-ray box set puts all nine series in high definition for the first time, with a hidden drawer of extras and new commissioned art. Here’s what’s inside and whether $148.99 is a fair price.

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I’ve been chasing a proper physical release of every Inside No. 9 series since the show quietly became one of the smartest things British television ever produced, and now that wait is finally over. The Inside No. 9 Blu-ray box set gathers all nine series, fifty-five episodes, onto nine discs for the first time anywhere, wrapped in a magnetic box with a hidden drawer full of extras. At $148.99 through Zavvi’s US store, it isn’t cheap, but for a show that never got a proper high-definition release beyond its first four series, this might be the one collector’s edition worth clearing shelf space for. My honest take, before we get into the details: this is a strong preorder if you love the show and don’t already own a region-locked player headache, though the price gap with the UK version stings a little. Quick verdict: the Inside No. 9 Blu-ray box set is the first release to put every series of the show in high definition, backed by genuinely thoughtful packaging, a hidden drawer, new commissioned art, and a note from the creators. At $148.99 it costs more than the UK edition once you skip the import math, and it ships Region B, so check your player before you buy. If you already treasure the show, it earns its spot on the shelf. Jump to a section: Quick specs at a glance
Format Blu-ray, Region B
Discs 9 discs
Runtime 55 episodes across 9 series (roughly 27 hours)
Audio / subtitles English audio confirmed; full subtitle breakdown not yet published by the studio
Release date November 16, 2026
Packaging Magnetic closing box with hidden “No. 9” drawer, new Graham Humphreys artwork
Inside No. 9 Complete Collection Limited Edition Blu-ray Box Set - front box packaging with Graham Humphreys artwork - fivestaredition.com

What’s actually inside the Inside No. 9 complete collection box

Cutting through the marketing copy, here’s what you actually get when the box lands on your table: nine discs, all fifty-five episodes across nine series, plus a slipcover with brand new artwork commissioned specifically for this release. The set uses new cover art from Graham Humphreys, an illustrator whose horror-poster pedigree fits a show that’s spent a decade mixing comedy with genuine dread. That alone tells you the studio treated this as a proper archival release rather than a rushed cash-in, which is not something I say about every anniversary boxset that crosses my desk. Open the case itself and there’s a second surprise built into the design: a magnetic closing box with what the BBC’s own materials call a hidden No. 9 drawer. Slide it open and you’ll find double-sided posters and a printed letter to fans written by Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton themselves, alongside a booklet featuring an introduction from longtime series producer Adam Tandy. It’s a small gesture, but it’s the kind of detail that separates a collector’s edition from a reissue with a sticker slapped on the front, and it echoes the kind of physical storytelling I look for whenever I’m deciding if a set earns permanent shelf space next to something like the Stranger Things complete series deluxe edition.

How the hidden drawer and new artwork change the presentation

Packaging gimmicks are easy to promise and hard to deliver, so I’m judging this one by what’s verifiable rather than the press release tone. Nine discs holding fifty-five episodes means whoever handled the authoring here had to fit nine years of a visually ambitious anthology series onto a manageable disc count, and the previous BBC Blu-ray run (the first four series, sold separately years ago) suggests the studio knows how to keep bitrate reasonable for a show shot mostly on studio sets. The nine-disc count matches what you’d expect for a series with fairly short thirty-minute episodes, so I’m not worried about heavy compression the way I would be for a nine-season prestige drama with hour-long installments. Where I’d want more transparency, and where the manufacturer hasn’t published details yet, is the exact subtitle language options. Older Inside No. 9 Blu-ray releases stuck to English audio with English subtitles for the hard of hearing, and there’s no indication this set changes that formula, but until a review copy is in someone’s hands that’s an educated guess rather than a confirmed spec. I’d rather tell you that plainly than invent a spec sheet that sounds authoritative and turns out wrong, which is exactly the kind of gap this article exists to flag rather than paper over.

Is this really the first time every series has been on Blu-ray

Here’s the part that actually matters if you’re a longtime fan deciding whether to double dip: only the first four series of Inside No. 9 ever received individual Blu-ray releases in the past, and series five through nine have been stuck on DVD or streaming only in the UK ever since they aired. That’s not a marketing claim, it’s the reason fans have been asking about a complete Blu-ray set on the show’s own subreddit for years, with one older thread simply asking, half-jokingly, when the studio would finally commit to a full collection. This release finally answers that specific, long-standing complaint, and it does it in one clean nine-series sweep instead of trickling out one series at a time. So the real comparison isn’t this set against some hypothetical future edition, it’s this set against buying the four existing individual Blu-rays secondhand and then streaming the rest in whatever compressed quality your platform of choice offers. Once you account for used-copy pricing and the simple fact that series five onward have never existed in HD physical media before, the $148.99 price tag looks a lot more reasonable than it does in isolation. You’re not just paying for a nicer box, you’re paying for episodes that literally didn’t exist on Blu-ray until now, which is the opposite situation from most “complete collection” reissues that just repackage discs you can already own.

Comparing it with how other complete collections handle the jump to one box

I’ve bought enough complete-series box sets to know the format usually falls into one of two camps: either it’s a victory lap for something already fully available on disc, like the Star Wars Skywalker Saga box set repackaging films collectors likely already own, or it’s a genuine first release for at least part of the run. Inside No. 9 sits firmly in the second camp, and that distinction should weigh heavily on whether you buy at full price or wait. Compare that to something like the Marvel Studios Infinity Saga collector’s edition, where nearly every disc had already circulated in some individual release beforehand. The value case for Inside No. 9 rests almost entirely on those five previously Blu-ray-less series, so if you already own the first four series on disc and only care about physical media for series five through nine, it’s worth checking whether a cheaper option exists before committing to the full box. I didn’t find one, for what it’s worth, but I’d rather you ask the question than assume.

Price, region coding and where this actually makes sense to buy

Let’s talk numbers, since that’s ultimately what decides whether a collector’s edition is worth it. Zavvi’s US storefront lists the set at $148.99, while UK retail listings for the same box set have run closer to £99.99 before shipping. Once you factor in international shipping and currency conversion, the US price isn’t wildly out of line with what UK buyers pay, though it’s still worth checking both storefronts before you commit, since pricing on newly announced collector’s editions tends to shift in the weeks after a preorder opens. Inside No. 9 Complete Collection Limited Edition Blu-ray Box Set - packaging angle showing the magnetic closing box - fivestaredition.com The detail that deserves its own paragraph, because I’ve seen it catch people out before, is region coding. UK retail listings for this set specify Region B, which is standard for BBC Blu-ray releases but is not compatible with a standard Region A player sold in the United States. If you’re a US collector, confirm your Blu-ray player is region-free before ordering, because otherwise a $148.99 box set becomes an expensive coaster. This is exactly the kind of spec that gets buried in fine print or skipped entirely on retailer pages, so I’m flagging it here in plain terms.
Store Region Price
Zavvi (US) United States $148.99
UK retail (Amazon UK / HMV / Zavvi UK) United Kingdom £99.99
Prices confirmed directly on retailer listings as of September 22, 2026, and may change over time, so always check the live listing before buying.

How the price compares once you count what’s actually new

Breaking the box down by disc, you’re paying somewhere around $16.50 per disc for material that includes five series that have never existed on Blu-ray in any form. Compared with typical individual season Blu-ray pricing for a similarly niche British series, that’s a fair rate rather than a premium one, and it undercuts what buying five separate hypothetical single-series releases would likely cost if the studio had gone that route instead. None of that changes the fact that $148.99 is a real amount of money for a TV box set, and it sits closer to premium 4K film collections like the Jurassic World Ultimate Collection steelbook than to a typical complete-series release. Whether that price feels justified comes down entirely to how much you value physical ownership of episodes you can currently only stream, and for a decent chunk of this show’s fanbase, based on the reaction I’ve seen online, the answer is clearly yes.

Pros and cons of the Inside No. 9 box set

  • Pro: all nine series in HD on physical media for the first time, including five that were never on Blu-ray before.
  • Pro: genuinely thoughtful packaging, including new Graham Humphreys artwork and a hidden drawer with posters and a fan letter.
  • Pro: a producer-written booklet introduction adds real archival value beyond the discs themselves.
  • Con: Region B coding rules out standard US Blu-ray players without a region-free upgrade.
  • Con: at $148.99, it costs noticeably more than piecing together the previously released series individually.
  • Con: subtitle language options haven’t been fully confirmed by the studio yet.

What Inside No. 9 fans are saying about the box set

The show’s own community hasn’t been shy about this release. A thread on r/insideno9 announcing the boxset pulled in more than seventy comments within days, and the tone leans celebratory rather than skeptical, which isn’t always the case when a niche show finally gets a premium physical release. Long-running frustration about the missing series five through nine on disc shows up repeatedly in older threads, including one from roughly a year back where a fan flatly noted the full run simply wasn’t available on Blu-ray yet, so this release is closing a gap the fanbase has been vocal about for a long time. Over on r/CollectorsEditions, the discussion skews more toward collectors evaluating it purely as a physical object, weighing the packaging against the price rather than reacting to the show itself. That split in reaction, hardcore fans versus format collectors, is worth keeping in mind when you’re reading opinions about this set anywhere online, including here. Neither group has a finished copy in hand yet, so treat any hands-on review you see before November 16 with a healthy amount of skepticism.

Our Take

I’ll say this plainly: I haven’t held this box yet, nobody outside the studio has, and anyone claiming otherwise before the November 16 release date is getting ahead of the facts. What I can tell you, based on everything the BBC and retailers have confirmed, is that this is the rare complete-collection release that actually earns the label. Five entire series have never been available on Blu-ray before this set exists, and the packaging details, the hidden drawer, the Graham Humphreys artwork, the producer’s booklet note, all point toward a studio that put real thought into the physical object rather than just slapping a slipcase on existing discs. This one’s for the collector who already loves the show and wants it treated with the same care as prestige box sets from bigger franchises, the kind of buyer who also has something like an Avatar 3-movie collector’s edition sitting on the same shelf. It’s available through Zavvi in the US and through UK retailers for import, and it works on standard Blu-ray hardware as long as your player isn’t region-locked to Region A. If you’ve been holding out for this exact release, I’d love to hear what you’re most looking forward to inside that hidden drawer, and whether the $148.99 price tag feels fair to you once it’s actually in your hands. Drop a comment once you’ve got yours, I’m genuinely curious whether the packaging holds up in person.

FAQS

Is the Inside No. 9 Blu-ray box set region free?

No. Available listings indicate a Region B lock, matching earlier BBC Blu-ray releases of the show. US collectors need a region-free player to watch it, since standard American players are Region A.

How many discs are in the Inside No. 9 complete collection?

The set spans nine discs, one for each series, holding all fifty-five episodes of the show in high definition.

Has Inside No. 9 series five through nine ever been on Blu-ray before?

No. Only the first four series previously received individual Blu-ray releases, making this the first time series five through nine have been available on Blu-ray in any form.

What extras come with the Inside No. 9 Limited Edition box set?

The box includes newly commissioned cover art by Graham Humphreys, a magnetic hidden drawer containing double-sided posters and a letter from Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, and a booklet with an introduction from producer Adam Tandy.

When does the Inside No. 9 Complete Collection Blu-ray release?

The set is scheduled for release on November 16, 2026, through the BBC and retailers including Zavvi, Amazon UK, and HMV.

Is the Inside No. 9 box set worth the price compared to buying series separately?

Since five of the nine series have never had an individual Blu-ray release, there is no cheaper like-for-like alternative on physical media, which makes the complete set’s price easier to justify than a typical reissue.
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