Inside Inside No. 9's three best episodes
Have you ever wondered what goes on inside Inside No. 9?
The finest dark comedy on TV has curdled our emotions for five series and returns to screens for a hotly-anticipated sixth on Monday, 10 May.
To prepare us for another onslaught of emotional rollercoasters, creators Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith lift the lid on three all-time classics in a series of special podcasts exclusive to BBC Sounds.
A Quiet Night In
Inside No. 9’s second ever episode A Quiet Night In stands out as it contains almost no dialogue.
"The episode showed what Inside No. 9 could do."
At night, two bumbling thieves attempt to break into a beautiful glass-fronted house to steal a priceless piece of art.
The occupants are blissfully unaware, distracted by such trivial mundanities as eating soup, watching EastEnders and having a domestic – if you can characterise senseless murder as a lovers’ tiff.
But it’s not a silent comedy – the soundtrack of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 and Harry Nilsson’s Without You offering a delicious background to the chaos that ensues.
“We’re very proud of it,” Reece tells the podcast. “It felt really different at the time and helped us set our stall out as a series that tells stories in really varied ways.”
Taking such a risk in episode two was bold, and Steve admits it wasn’t a decision they took lightly.
“There was a fear that the episode was too out there and would put people off,” he says. “But it was the total opposite. It showed what Inside No. 9 could do.”
There was a definite advantage to an episode with no speech for the actors.
“I loved having no lines to learn,” says Reece. “It felt like the reins were off and we could do something physical.
“It is hard though to write 18 pages of stage direction.”
And the slapstick nature of the show has won it many fans over the years.
“I can definitely see why it’s one of the favourites,” Steve says.
“As soon as you put it on, it puts a smile on your face.”
The Riddle of the Sphinx
Perhaps Inside No. 9’s most harrowing episode is series 2’s Riddle of the Sphinx, a twisted tale of revenge, murder and incestuous cannibalism – yes they went there.
"One of the darkest we've done - but I can see why it's popular."
“I can see why this is very popular,” Steve reflects on the podcast. “It’s one of the darkest we’ve done but it has a bit of everything.”
Initially, it came as an ode to cryptic crosswords, a subject very close to Steve’s heart.
“I do love them and that’s why I wrote this episode,” says Steve. “I’d borrowed a crosswords book from Victoria Coren Mitchell and wasn’t thinking about Inside No. 9 but suddenly an idea came.
“Could we dramatise two people solving a crossword and get a 30-minute story out of it?
“Once I’d decided one character would be teaching another how to solve them, the whole story came together quickly.”
Steve’s skills sharpened rapidly and, in a clever Easter egg, he got the episode’s crossword published in The Guardian before the show aired, under the pseudonym Sphinx.
“I got very bad reviews as a crossword setter,” he admits.
“But it wasn’t my fault – we’d cheated and used it as a plot device. I was stuck with words I couldn’t help having in there!”
The episode tells of a sister bent on vengeance against a professor, whose outrage during the final of a crossword competition had led to her brother’s death.
But, as is always the way, there are many layers to this plot and its denouement has delighted and tormented audiences since its release.
“It goes from the 1972 play Sleuth to My Fair Lady to The Cook, The Thief, The Wife & His Lover inside 30 minutes and it’s absolutely breathless,” says Steve.
“The script moves at such a pace that you don’t stop to think about the details. If it paused, people would question it but the energy makes you go along with it.”
The 12 Days of Christine
The all-time fan favourite episode of Inside No. 9 is The 12 Days of Christine, a mid series 3 episode that rocked us to our core.
"I welled up reading Twitter when the episode went out."
Sheridan Smith is on top form as the troubled Christine, whose life seems to be accelerating – and collapsing – before our eyes.
Its emotional punch is perhaps a departure from the usual style and its place as number one puts its writers on opposite sides of the fence.
“It’s strange because it’s not particularly funny and we’re supposedly writing comedy,” says Reece. “I wish the favourite one was a funny one but the thing that gets it to number one is how moving it is.
“We tried to come up with something different,” Steve explains. “We’d had comedy, scary, historical – but we’d not done domestic drudgery.
“At its heart, this is a really moving story with a powerful performance from Sheridan.”
Each scene change marks another 13 months in Christine’s life and we see her relationships deepen and then unravel, the brutal hacks between scenes adding to a sense of confusion as though in a dream.
And Reece reveals that the life events charted - building a cot, first day at school, child getting hurt - were rooted in the writers’ own experiences.
“We had little kids at the time and those instances were really fresh in our minds,” he says. “They weren’t funny, but they were very real.”
As for the gut-wrenching twist at the end, that’s just one the audience had to stomach.
It's testament to their skill in getting the audience so heavily invested in a character they’d not met a mere 25 minutes earlier.
“The ending is probably the sharpest rug-pull that we’ve done, but people were even moved watching the takes and that’s rare,” says Steve.
But they hadn’t anticipated the response that followed.
“When the episode went out, I was on Twitter and welled up at people’s reactions,” says Steve. “People were – and still are – floored by it.
“It’s gone deep into people’s psyches and I find that so moving.”
To watch all these episodes, and the rest of Inside No. 9's superb back catalogue, go to BBC iPlayer.
And don't miss the new series, airing Monday, 10 May at 21:30 BST on BBC Two - new episodes of Inside Inside No. 9 will be released weekly, straight after the programme, exclusively on BBC Sounds
