It’s Friday the 13th, so for ultra-superstitious Gareth it’s a day to stay home and avoid any unnecessary human contact. Then the doorbell rings…

It’s only the postwoman (Samantha Spiro, best known for portraying Barbara Windsor in various projects) but Gareth (Reece Shearsmith) really doesn’t want to open the door to her. She has a package that’ll have to go back to the depot if he doesn’t, so maybe as long as she doesn’t come in it’ll be fine. No prizes for guessing that that’s not how it pans out and soon everything that could go wrong has. She’s soon joined by an overly mercenary handyman (Steve Pemberton) who’s only making matters worse. For it’s not only the titular date that he’s afraid of – ladders, broken mirrors, shoes on tables, umbrellas opened indoors and so on – he’s pathologically terrified of them all.

For most of its length this instalment plays like an episode of an old sitcom – you can imagine Basil Fawlty or Harold Steptoe similarly afflicted for one week only and getting into the same sort of scrapes. Even the performances, particularly Spiro’s, are pitched at that sort of level, with good reason. Being Inside No.9 things aren’t quite what they seem but that’s not something I can touch on here other than to say it has a neat and rather emotional ending.

Filling out the cast are Amanda Abbington (Sherlock) as Gareth’s wife, Dana, as well as Leon Herbert (Alien3), Moyo Akandé (Tetris) and young Ayda Kiiza, as well as a surprise turn from a familiar TV face. Ultimately though this is an opportunity for Shearsmith to shine, not unlike last season’s Wise Owl he gets to pull out all his acting chops. Despite my innate scorn for superstition I really felt the guy’s anguish and it’s properly made sense of in this context.

Verdict: A fun slice of old-fashioned situational comedy until it inevitably takes a darker turn. 8/10

Andy Smith