Andy Smith takes a lookback at nine seasons Inside No. 9

For the last three seasons it’s been my pleasure to review Inside No.9 for this website and, of course, that has come to end with the series recently finishing after nine seasons. I wanted to mark the occasion and give one of my favourite shows a proper send off. Appropriately enough I’ve picked nine episodes, one from each season, to have a little look at, as well as a brief mention for one runner up each year. It was a very tough call but I’ve selected examples that I felt were memorable and maybe have some personal resonance for me. I’ve also tried to include stories that cover the variety of styles and sub-genres the series is noted for.

Series 1 Episode 6: The Harrowing

A teenage girl is hired to house sit for an evening unaware she has been chosen to prevent mischief from being unleashed upon the world.

Hard to choose as this inaugural season has three or four heavy hitters but this one really sticks out as something that lingers in the mind long after the fact. Just thinking about it brings me chills. Aimee-Ffion Edwards stands out as the doomed teenager and the final scene, especially after what’s about to happen has been described as “not unlike giving birth… except the other way round” is indeed harrowing. What makes this interesting too is that the siblings, played by Reese Shearsmith and the late Helen McCrory, are actually doing good – it’s a horrifying thing to do but they are saving the world from a literal hell on earth. Despite that it’s also very funny in places.

One other reason I picked it is the inclusion of the song Lord of the Dance, a very strange modern hymn with memorably stark lines such as “It’s hard to dance with the devil on your back”. I distinctly remember one of my junior school teachers regularly leading us in a singalong of this, and it retrospectively makes what were once fond memories a little bit chilling.

Runner up – A Quiet Night In, a gloriously clever almost-silent comedy perhaps slightly marred by a cheap gag, but still a great episode.

Series 2 Episode 5: Nana’s Party

A practical joke involving Nana’s birthday cake leads to an affair being exposed.

This was originally one of two scripts written to pitch the show, and its sitcom feel led to an offer to expand it into a series proper but instead it was put on the back-burner before being retooled for series two. It’s notable for playing with audience expectations – by this time in the run we’re used to things taking a very dark turn and we’re nervously expecting the knife to be innocently plunged into someone’s head at several moments. Instead it goes another way and ends up as a rare episode that’s a bit more grounded in reality than usual. There’s a distinctly Alan Ayckbourn feel to it – Pemberton and Shearsmith often wear their Theatre Studies education on their sleeves – as suburban normality is exposed as nothing of the sort and everything goes to hell in a handbasket.

A big plus is the casting of Claire Skinner, essentially playing a variation of her character from Outnumbered (another of my all-time favourite series) and she brings that recognition with her – sometimes obvious casting is the best way to go, it works as a sort of characterisation shorthand. I love all the little details here – the gran obsessed with the lame joke on her birthday card to the two men surreptitiously swapping and discussing the merits of their “Countdown” videos (which are of course smut tapes). Plus we have the rather upsetting performance from Lorraine Ashbourne as the sister whose alcoholism is played entirely straight and never for cheap laughs, which raises this from light comedy to proper drama.

Runner up – The 12 Days of Christine, mainly for Sheridan Smith skillfully breaking your heart with just two words – “Goodbye, everyone”.

Series 3 Episode 2: The Bill

Three friends take a new acquaintance out for a meal and an argument ensues about who will pay for it.

I love a good scam, as long as it’s confined to fiction, and this one doesn’t disappoint. For much of its length this tale could go anywhere, it’s the sort of setup that any number of comedy dramas could make use of, probably ending in a big old fight but this is cleverer than that. To be fair the events don’t quite make sense – I’m unsure how they would be certain their mark would accidentally “kill” someone, but that’s a minor gripe. I love Jason Watkins in this – I’ve seen him in no end of things and he’s pretty much always giving a similar rather fey and very precise performance but is still somehow brilliant and endlessly entertaining. While he’s characterised as being rather mean financially I’m sympathetic – I’m a big believer in the principle that someone who doesn’t have a drink or a starter shouldn’t have to pay an equal split of the bill (dessert-avoiders are no fun and deserve no such consideration). I love the little twist at the very end too, again the show playing against audience expectations.

Runner up – The Riddle of the Sphinx, for not only explaining how cryptic crosswords work but also ingeniously making the answers pertinent to the story.

Series 4 Episode 1: Zanzibar

One hotel corridor, two long-lost twins and a shedload of iambic pentameter make for a delightfully smutty farce.

A very tough choice from a season of almost entirely strong episodes but this stands out as an extraordinary piece of writing enlivened by a perfect cast. Even without its gimmick it would be enormous fun but the Shakespearian vibe is the icing on the cake. I’ve never tried to write just like the Bard, I think it must be really rather hard. Oh, okay not so hard but I wouldn’t want to come up with half an hour of it.

Jaygann Ayeh shines as Fred, our Puckish narrator, as does Helen Monks as the saucy chambermaid, but stealing the show is Tanya Franks playing entirely to type as the off-the-menu “room service”. Throw in Rory Kinnear playing the twins, subtly distinguishing the two, Bill Patterson as their long-lost father and Hattie Morahan giving her trademark nervy performance and we have one of the best ensemble casts the show has given us. And then Kevin Eldon turns up as a Poundland Derren Brown. It’s basically perfect.

Runner up – Almost any of the others this year but, at a push, Bernie Clifton’s Dressing Room as a love letter to the sort of comedy we had to put up with in the 70s and 80s,

Series 5 Episode 4: Misdirection

A magician murders one of his peers in order to steal a trick. Years later he’s interviewed by a young magician which may well prove to be his undoing.

This is Inside No.9 doing Columbo, my favourite TV show ever, so it’s a shoe-in for my pick. They don’t try to hide it, the opening sequence is similar to that of Columbo Goes to the Guillotine (the inaugural film of the series’ 1980s revival), the murderer routinely underestimates his interviewer and later the detective himself is mentioned in relation to the infamous Trivial Pursuit wrong answer about his first name. The subject of copyright traps is a fascinating one, they’re commonly used by authors of encyclopaedias, maps and indeed quiz books to identify plagiarism. I love how that’s been incorporated into this tale. It’s very clever, requires you to pay attention and the ending is so horrifyingly grim, made even worse by having the victim played by lovely Jill Halfpenny, so it kind of hurts more.

Runner up – Death Be Not Proud with the return of Maureen and David Sowerbutts from Psychoville. Just doing a sequel to a completely different series is bold enough (is there any precedent?) but it also works as a self-contained piece and the twist at the end genuinely surprised me. Delightful.

Series 6 Episode 2: Simon Says

The finale of TV series The 9th Circle has disappointed fans and critics. A fan blackmails Its creator into bringing it back, with tragic results.

Since this is an SF/Fantasy website I thought this an appropriate pick as it examines the relationship between fan and creator. This one was broadcast just over two years to the day after the conclusion of Game of Thrones and even by then a certain section of fandom was still very unhappy about the perceived rushed storytelling of the final season and the events of the finale. Pemberton and Shearsmith hadn’t actually seen that series at the time, but anyone with any interest in genre TV couldn’t have avoided hearing of the fallout – I seem to remember even my Mum mentioning it. This one raises and addresses lots of questions about the relationship between creator and fan. Does the author owe fans anything? Is a fan’s opinion valid? Should their desires affect storytelling? Is fanfiction always to be dismissed as having no value? The answer to all these questions is probably yes and no, and the episode doesn’t shy away from that.

I’m sure many of us here have felt insulted at times by the usual portrayal of fans and fandom in the media. Of course there are fans who’ve made their passion for something their entire identity, you may be one of them, and they can no doubt seem peculiar but if something brings them pleasure then is there any harm? Obsessed football fans are usually portrayed in the media as committed, obsessed sci-fi fans are portrayed as needing to be. This time there’s a little bit of nuance allowed, especially with Nick Mohammed’s character who seems to be not without talent and makes it clear that he derives genuine joy from the show he loves, plus for once talks like a normal person rather than nasally giving mini-lectures to anyone who’s interested or not.

Runner up – Hurry Up and Wait for its portrayal of the exciting world of the Supporting Artist (best mate and fellow SFB scribe Nick Joy does this for a living but as far as I know has yet to almost solve any cold cases on the job).

Series 7 Episode 6: Wise Owl

A series of animated Public Information Films punctuate a tragic tale of abuse.

This season is where I started reviewing the show for this site and anyone who remembers those reviews won’t be surprised by my choice here. Being a child of the 1970s I enjoyed the PIFs, they were part and parcel of kids’ culture at the time. Ask any British Gen-Xer which PIF disturbed or upset them the most and you will get an answer, they were so prevalent (mine is Apaches, kids playing on a farm dying horribly one at a time) and their equivalents here are spot-on examples. American TV used to have what they referred to as the “Very Special Episode”, usually a sitcom which did a one-off tackling a serious subject – Diff’rent Strokes’ episode with the paedophile shopkeeper is probably the most famous example – and I feel that this is Inside No.9’s equivalent. It’s a bold move for a show which regularly portrays made-up horrors to take on a very real one, but it does so with tact, sensitivity and also some positivity. Reece Shearsmith gives possibly his best performance of the whole series in this episode and, when appropriate, it’s also pretty funny. A Very Special Episode indeed.

Runner up – A Random Act of Kindness, a rare foray into SF with the heart of a Ray Bradbury story.

Series 8 Episode 3: Paraskevidekatriaphobia

A deeply superstitious man attempts to avoid anything that could go wrong on Friday the 13th.

I have no truck with the knock-on-wood brigade so the fact the main character elicited such sympathy from me is a testament to its quality – you really feel for the poor guy as the outside world impinges on his deliberate seclusion. It starts off very oddly with broad comedy and some very Am-Dram performances, until it’s revealed to be deliberate and part of the plot. It plays out for the most part like an old-fashioned sitcom until it takes a tragic turn right at the very end.

Runner up – The Last Weekend, one of their best tales of revenge as the victim loses nine years of their life (and then their actual life) to a father who holds him responsible for his daughter’s death.

Series 9 Episode 4: CTRL ALT ESC

A family must solve the puzzle of The Killer’s Lair before time runs out.

It’s really rather amazing that after all this time they’re able to come up with a contender for the best episode of the series ever. It ticks just about every box associated with the show – it’s scary, intriguing, well-directed and performed, potentially heartbreaking (but actually uplifting) and while not exactly full of laughs has a witty and clever script. Despite that it doesn’t feel like anything we’ve had before. Casting Katherine Kelly, a busy and successful actor but not necessarily a household name (depending on the household and what it watches of course), as the mother really helped sell it – I love a good famous face in these but sometimes not knowing an actor gives an extra layer of reality it might lack otherwise. A stunning bit of telly to finish up on.

Runner up – Boo to a Goose, a proper SF chiller with one of the show’s best ensemble casts.

 

So there we have it, nine episodes which I hope represent the variety and quality of Inside No.9. It’s been a fun journey, although there’s more to come in the form of the stage show version and perhaps specials, but for now “Goodbye, everyone”.

Andy Smith