Inside No 9 - Deliciously Sinister Drama

I was introduced to Inside No 9 by a friend at work. When I asked him to describe the first episode to me, unsure as he struggled for words, he finally grabbed (quite appropriately) at ‘disturbing’.



From the intricately menacing minds that brought us The League of Gentlemen and Psychoville, Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton have linked arms once again and have skipped us around their deliciously dark comedy cerebrations with their new six part series, Inside No 9. Each episode stands back turned, humming quietly alone in the corner, with a nervous tension that rarely lifts outside of the Fight Club sized plot twists and Ken Kesey-esque table-turning character development; quite impressive for a thirty minute run time.

Inside No 9 - Sardines starring Katherine Parkinson, Luke Pasqualino, Anna Chancellor, Tim Key,
Ophelia Lovibond, Anne Reid, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Marc Wootton, Ben Willbond, Timothy West,
Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton  (image courtesy of BBC)

Comedy serpents, Shearsmith and Pemberton shed their characters from one episode to the next, with the first episode Sardines proving one of the most squirmingly uncomfortable programmes I have ever watched. Starring The IT Crowd’s Katherine Parkinson and Musketeer Luke Pasqualino, the cameos don’t stop here with a long list of British acting and comedy supremes including Gemma Arterton (Tamara Drewe), Oona Chaplin (Game Of Thrones), Kayvan Novak (Four Lions), Tamsin Greig (Green Wing), Timothy West (Bleak House), Julia Davis (Gavin & Stacey) and Denis Lawson (Wedge in Star Wars!). Episode two A Quiet Night In is a fresh and brilliantly executed dialogue-free script (is that a thing?), and episode three Tom & Gerri is the very definition of my colleagues original conclusion.

A psychoanalysts dream, I can’t wait to see what the series has left in store for us and am already chomping for a second series!

Also make sure you check out the interactive digital seventh episode of Inside No 9, The Inventors. 

Oh and check out these super film styled posters by the BBC:

Inside No 9 - Sardines (image courtesy of BBC)

Inside No 9 - Last Gasp (image courtesy of BBC)

Inside No 9 - The Inventors (image courtesy of BBC)

Inside No 9 - A Quiet Night In (image courtesy of BBC)

Inside No 9 - Tom & Gerri (image courtesy of BBC)