SPOILERS

 It’s a wrap. As their long-running and acclaimed anthology series reaches its end, its writers are faced with the prospect of a future without each other. Can their friendship survive as they go it alone?

We begin this episode as we began the very first episode, Sardines, with Katherine Parkinson, dressed in red, in a bathroom smelling a bar of soap. This is the first time a guest actor has appeared onscreen in a second episode (Derek Jacobi’s first outing was a voice over and Denis Lawson’s second was an interrupted faux repeat of his first) so this immediately raises the question “Is this a sequel to Sardines and how did she survive?” This is reinforced moments later when she finds herself in a confined space with Tim Keys, that episode’s antagonist. It’s not long before it’s confirmed that they are in fact playing themselves, and are soon joined by Anne Reid, also from that episode, who’s heard that Katherine has scored some “good snow”.

Rather magnificently we are in the gender-neutral loos at a party to mark the end of Inside No.9. I think this is what the kids call “meta” and oldies like me used to call “post-modern” but really the right word is “celebratory”. The whole episode drips with references to previous tales, from odd lines of dialogue to Jack Whitehall’s “gift” of a (fake) poo in a box. Not only that but the party itself is attended by dozens of actors from the series, most of them appearing ever so briefly as essentially supporting artists – 56 in total, just over one for each episode. A few have a little moment in the spotlight, most amusingly Jason Watkins being just as tight and receipt-obsessed as his character from season three’s The Bill. A compilation video being played to the audience sweetly takes moments to linger over the late David Warner and Helen McRory’s appearances which was a very nice touch. In larger roles we have Robin Asquith shilling for the legendarily unmade bus episode, Rosie Cavaliero fussing over Steve, Amanda Abbington continually being confused with Katherine Parkinson (check the end credits!) and Nick Mohammed interviewing the writers for his distinctly amateurish podcast series.

It’s an extraordinary piece of actor-wrangling and I doubt the budget would have stretched to everyone’s day rates, a great many of these actors are household names. I’d like to think they were there because they enjoyed being part of the show and wanted to help mark it – an account of a live event with the main cast last night seems to confirm that for the “extras” this was indeed the case although they of course had their travel expenses covered..

This isn’t just Inside No.9 The Afterparty though (remember the Doctor Who 50th anniversary companion-corral and shudder), it’s primarily about Steve and Reece coming to terms with the end of an era. Steve has tentatively secured a life-changing role which will put the kibosh on plans for the partners’ forthcoming detective series. We learn that he had faked illness during the shooting of CTRL ALT ESC in order to attend the audition and Reece states that they had to use a double for one sequence. Amazingly they actually did – eagle-eyed viewers have spotted a double for reverse-angle shots starting at 17:45 if you’d like to check for yourself.

It’s all this that challenges their long friendship, a situation that may leave Reece out in the cold. Now obviously they’re playing fictionalised versions of themselves, as is everyone else, but the issues they are dealing with must be very real for a long-term creative partnership. For every Two Ronnies there’s an Abbott & Costello, for every Wham! there’s a Simon & Garfunkel – professional jealousies and unchecked egos can easily destroy previously solid friendships. Surprisingly there’s not much holding back here, it’s raw stuff and it’s fun to see them painting themselves, especially Steve, in such a poor light. In reality, according to comments made at the live event, they continue to be firm friends and it’s just for the purposes of the story, not to mention they both have had many successes apart from each other. A lot of this echoes the beloved episode Bernie Clifton’s Dressing Room, a tale about a dissolved double-act coming to terms with the pressures of repeating themselves and the toll that even a modicum of success can take on a person. There’s no subtlety about this reference and it’s sweetly done but it does bring up an obvious issue with this episode.

I’m rather torn and have some cognitive dissonance about this farewell. As a fan I enjoyed it – all the references and particularly seeing favourite actors cropping up to a lesser or greater extent tickled me immensely. On the other hand this would be inexplicable to anyone happening to catch it who hadn’t seen the series before, or even had seen a few. So much of this relies on having a pretty deep familiarity with the show and a decent memory of it. Luckily I’m about halfway through a rewatch so I caught a lot of it but some went over my head – let’s not forget many even faithful viewers may not have seen the episodes in question for up to ten years.

Having said that, if you’re going to be self-indulgent and self-reverential then do so unashamedly and that’s the case here. They’ve earned the right for this to be a big pat on the back. Few genre anthology series have had nine seasons – Tales of the Unexpected matches it and The Twilight Zone beats it if you count the numerous reboots. Of course any number of shorter-lived examples have more episodes, but to the best of my knowledge not one of them had every single episode written by the same writers. There’s a self-deprecating gag here that every fourth episode is a dud but that’s really not the case – I can count on less than one hand the number of episodes I’ve disliked and even then they’re still at least of interest. Inside No.9 has been an extraordinary achievement and any number of episodes, to my mind, are up there with the best and most remembered examples of the genre. Well done, chaps.

Verdict: I think it’s only right and proper they did something special and probably unique for the grand finale even if it’s for fans only, so on that basis 9/10

Andy Smith