The weird and wonderful Inside No.9 returns
Everything ents that gets a big yes from us this week BBC2, MONDAY 3 FEBRUARY, 10PM
Inside No. 9 is a unique beast. Every episode – and there have been 25 so far – is a completely separate story with its own characters, cast and setting. The only elements that link them are the fact they’ve all been written by The League Of Gentlemen legends Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, who also star in them in some way, shape or form, and that they all take place in a “no. 9” location of some kind, whether it be a hotel room, a house number, or, as in this new series, a police car with the number 9 on the roof. They’re also all ostensibly comedies, although they’ve always been genre-bending tales, capable of being as scary and/or emotional as they are funny. There’s been a silent episode, a story told backwards, one in which all the dialogue was in Shakespearean verse, and one shot entirely on CCTV. Now, as the show reaches its creative and popular peak, we’ve got six new stories to enjoy.
BEYOND HALLOWEEN
After four series of wonderfully varied stories, the most recent episode “Dead Line”, the Halloween special of 2018, was perhaps a game-changer. It was not only a live broadcast, but was also dazzlingly bold and ambitious, fooling viewers into thinking there was a technical fault during the airing of the one-off special while we watched Shearsmith and Pemberton, playing themselves, trying to deal with what was apparently going wrong. It all climaxed in a terrifying ending that left viewers wondering what they really just saw. The episode showed just how far the creators could take this concept. Now, with the new, fifth series, Shearsmith and Pemberton prove yet again their extraordinary knack of pulling the rug from under our feet.
BACK TO BASICS
This time around, there are stories dealing with magic, a police procedural, a “back to basics” episode featuring monologues to camera and, first up, “The Referee’s A W***er”, a superb story set entirely in the ref’s changing room before, during half-time and after a key football match. David Morrissey is the ref, Shearsmith, Pemberton and Ralf Little are fellow officials and newcomer Dipo Ola a star player. There are twists throughout, and it has the cleverest, funniest “no. 9” location reveal yet.