Lotta bottle
Six more of the best from top Leaguers…
INSIDE NO.9: SERIES 2
15
2015 Out now DVD, BD
From Breaking Bad’s hysterical ‘The Fly’ to Doctor Who’s horror-fied ‘Midnight’, ‘bottle’ episodes can bring out a show’s best, forcing smart solutions to tight constraints. League Of Gentlemen/Psychoville veterans Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton prove the point in these six single-set studies in controlled ambiguity: the mix of focus and fluency is top- League work.
Tales Of The Unexpected is echoed, but artful direction (by Julia’s Eyes’ Guillem Morales), game fart gags and heartfelt surprises hoist the openers above familiarity. If the traincarriage ep lovingly juggles rug-pulls and bum-gas sniggers with keen character studies, ‘The 12 Days Of Christine’ is pure gold, its mystery steered by Sheridan Smith’s lead toward a sucker-punch twist. Bring tissues.
Though nothing else here is quite as good, less-than-genius is no failing. A mash of the mundane, macabre and mirthful elevates a droll witch-trial satire; elsewhere, a call-centre chiller-com employs multi-cam footage with maximum cunning. Where the stories lead, the tonal reins hold: with precision playing from Pemberton and Lorraine Ashbourne especially, episode five’s Alan Ayckbourn-ish tragi-comedy expertly teases slow-unfolding sorrows from sordid secrets amid the celery sticks and Branston at a 70th birthday party.
And if ‘Séance Time’ echoes series one’s ‘The Harrowing’, there’s still a wealth of double-bluffing poise in its skin-tingling tale of unhappy mediums and neurotic TV numpties. Series three hasn’t been ordered yet, but the Beeb would be daft to can this: even on old haunts, Shearsmith and Pemberton’s bottles brim with vintage class. Behind-the-scenes extras are brief but informative.