As I seek out new mysteries to watch that will thrill me with their twists and turns, the biggest turn I’ve made from my initial exploration into Britbox is that the best twists seem to come from the non-mystery series. And so, I’ve set aside the tepid whodunnits of Sister Boniface, given up on Father Brown entirely, done my grieving over the boring final season of Line of Duty and, on the advice of my friend Kemper, started to watch, in the words of Monty Python, something completely different. 

Inside No. 9 describes itself as a “black comedy anthology” series. It has been likened to Black Mirror because of the darkly weird nature of its tales. The main difference is that Black Mirror is such a mixed bag in terms of quality, and so far Inside No. 9 has delighted me. The show was created by Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, a pair of comic actors and writers of whom my British readers have no doubt been long aware. They starred in The League of Gentlemen and created and starred in Psychoville – both series about which I know nothing. These guys have been around, and in 2014, they created No. 9. So, yes – I’m here with the big scoop on a show that has been around for a decade. 

But, man, this show is good! At least the nine episodes I decided to cover for this have been great. Mind you, this is an anthology show, meaning every episode comes with an original plot, setting, and often a specific method/style of story-telling that plays to the advantages of the plot of the moment. Not all episodes are created equal, and while I’m only on the middle of the second season (each season contains six episodes), I may discover some creative limitations after a couple more seasons. So far, however, so good!

There are a few common threads that permeate the series: First, Shearsmith and Pemberton have written all the episodes, and they tend to act in them as well. Sometimes they both take major roles; other times, they’re barely in it, or only one of them appears. Secondly, whatever the setting – a house, an apartment, a dressing room, a train compartment – the number nine figures in the address. And finally, while the tone of the show is far less serious-minded, the similarities to The Twilight Zone are hard to ignore. The seemingly mundane lives of seemingly ordinary people are presented, and at some point you can feel that something is . . . well, off! The creators do a bang-up job building tension as we start to feel that something is coming, whether it’s an unmasking of truth or a necessary bit of retribution. All I know is that I can spend most of each half hour laughing my head off and in the final moments I find I have clapped my hand to my mouth in horror or surprise. 

Kemper advised (warned?) me that the series is “very British” – and it certainly is, both in its unique brand of humor that veers from silly to serious, from inane to insane, at the drop of a hat, and in the assortment of extraordinary actors who populate each episode. Yes, here’s where I have to sadly admit that the quality of performance in your average British show tends to be superior to those of American series – even the soap operas, as I learned when I watched about five minutes of an episode of Emmerdale. The only drawback is that I tend to need the subtitles to make sure I catch the dialogue under all those groovy accents!

Shearsmith and Pemberton can offer this assortment of fine thespians because anthology series require no long-term commitment from folks who tend to flip between movies, TV, and the Royal Shakespeare Company. And it doesn’t hurt that these actors are provided with some brilliant scripts. I ask myself why I react to this show as if it were a mystery series. I think it’s because of how well Shearsmith and Pemberton create complex circles of characters in only twenty minutes. When Rod Serling produced Twilight Zone, the final twists were often wonderful, but they usually affected one or two, maybe three people. The various spaces numbered “Nine” are often crammed to the gills with people, all of whom might be struck down by the final twist, and because we have gotten to know them through the plot points and the hilarious dialogue, the fate of these people matters more to me. 

Let’s look at, appropriately, the first nine episodes of Inside No. 9. I will attempt to rank each episode (on a scale of 1 – 9) based on the premise, the characters, and the final twist (which I promise not to spoil).

SEASON ONE

(All these episodes were directed by David Kerr and first appeared weekly on TV between February 5 and March 12, 2014.)

“Sardines”

Premise:  An engagement party for Rebecca and Jeremy is being given at her stately family home with the consent of her father Andrew. Rebecca has asked everyone to play one of her favorite games, “Sardines,” a variation on “Hide and Seek” where one person hides and each successive person who finds the hider joins them in the hiding place. The first hider, Ian, has chosen the wardrobe in one of the bedrooms as his hiding place. The first to find him is Rebecca, and she is joined successively by ten other people who jam into this claustrophobic space (although a few of them attempt to spill into a secondary hiding place under the bed). As the game progresses, the complex nature of people’s relationships and feelings for one another reveals itself. Secrets are exposed, and the game ends in a way it no doubt has never ended before. 

Cast: This is the largest cast in the first season and features a wonderful assortment of actors, including Katherine Parkinson as Rebecca, Timothy West as her father Andrew, and Anne Reid as her childhood nanny Geraldine. Shearsmith and Pemberton have choice roles as Rebecca’s gay brother and his flamboyant lover. 

The twist: what I loved about this is how funny it is – and then how some of the things we laughed at become integral to where the plot is going. A good example of this is the presence of an old friend of Carl’s named John (Marc Wootton) who now goes by the nickname “Stinky” because he has stopped washing. Perhaps the tone of this episode veers a bit too quickly at the end. But with it’s juxtaposition of humor and horror, and the way it makes you look back on an episode and see jokes and funny bits differently at the end, it provides the perfect template for the series to come.

Score: 9/9

“A Quiet Night In”

Premise: Eddie and Ray, a pair of possibly inept burglars, plan to break in to the highly modern, high-tech home of Gerald and Sabrina to steal a painting. Immediately, everything starts to go wrong, beginning with the fact that the couple are at home with their housekeeper and a mismatched pair of dogs. As the complications ramp up, so does the domestic tension between husband and wife, until any sort of ending is possible! All of it is accompanied by terrific uses of music, especially a piece by Rachmaninoff and Nilsson’s classic song “Without You.” 

Cast: : Shearsmith and Pemberton are front and center as the burglars, and they are hilarious. Their lunatic reactions to a variety of surprises about the place they are in and the people they find there contrast nicely to the serious intent behind Gerald and Sabrina’s troubled life. Denis Lawson (Star Wars) plays Gerald, and in a charming bit of casting, Oona Chaplin, Charlie Chaplin’s great-granddaughter, plays Sabrina. 

The twist: This is very much in the vein of The Coen Brothers or Tarantino: the humor ramps up continually but is accompanied by some moments of shocking violence. (One viewer wrote in to The Times complaining that the episode traumatized him!) The final moment is equally shocking but not necessarily surprising. It’s a bit of a comedown to reality after the raucous piece of comedy that came before it. 

Score: 8/9

“Tom and Gerri” 

Premise: Tom is a primary school teacher who lives with his fiancée Gerri, an actress. Tom loves Gerri but hates his job; in reality, he is a frustrated writer. One morning, he complains to Gerri about a homeless man he saw begging outside the apartment. After she leaves for an audition, the doorbell rings, and the beggar, Miggs, announces that he has found Tom’s wallet. Thus begins a bizarrely parasitic friendship that utterly transforms Tom’s life.

Cast: Shearsmith plays Tom and Pemberton plays Miggs. The rest of the cast is rounded out by Gemma Arterton as Gerri and Conleth Hill as Tom’s gay teacher friend Stevie. 

The Twist: When I hear the names “Tom and Jerry” I think of the cat and mouse – but I don’t see the connection here. I have to admit that for most of its running time, this felt like a typical Twilight Zone episode. Tom’s casually cruel comments at the top to Gerri about the homeless man he has seen feel like the set-up for a typical TZ comeuppance story. And, sure enough, what follows feels exactly like that as Tom and Miggs slowly seem to trade places. And then, at the end, the plot goes through one mad twist after another, taking us to an entirely different place that, frankly, didn’t quite feel earned by what had come before. Everyone performs it well, but the central relationship between Tom and Miggs kind of annoyed me more than it entertained.

Score:  6/9

“Last Gasp”

Premise: Jan and Graham are the suburban parents of little Tamsin, who is terminally ill. The couple arrange with WishmakerUK to have pop star Frankie J. Parsons (a favorite of Jan’s) come visit Tamsin. When the singer suffers a fatal heart attack while blowing up a balloon for the little girl, his assistant Si arranges with Frankie’s manager to have the body picked up in a way that will avoid publicity. While they are waiting, Graham, Si and Sally, the WishmakerUK representative, realize that the balloon containing Frankie’s dying breath could net them a fortune. 

Cast: For once, Shearsmith is not in the cast, but Pemberton plays the central role of Graham. Adding much luster to the episode is Sophie Thompson as Jan, who is perhaps the only adult in the room. The rest of the cast is great, but I have to single out Lucy Hutchinson (who was eight years old at the time) as Tamsin. Every look she grudgingly bestows on the people around her is filled with meaning, and she manages to imbue her character’s tragic story with loads of sardonic humor.

The Twist: This one never skirts from the theme of comeuppance, and I don’t mind a bit! The idea of selling celebrity breath is inspired, and watching the humanity siphon out of Graham, Sally and Si due to their greed is hilarious. You know they’re going to get it in the end, but here for once the writers allow their judgment to be as effervescent and fun as the story that preceded it. 

Score: 9/9

“The Understudy”

Premise: At a West End Theatre where Shakespeare’s Macbeth is playing, the star’s dressing room (No. 9, of course) is full of “vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself!” Leading man Tony Warner does not suffer fools gladly when it comes to his co-stars, his dresser, his fawning audience, and especially his understudy Jim. Jim longs to go on in the role, and his fiancée Laura, the understudy for Lady Macbeth, urges him to take his chance when it comes because the increased salary will help pay for their wedding. An accident onstage makes Jim’s dream come true. But was it an accident? And will it lead to happiness?

Cast: Pemberton plays Tony and Shearsmith the understudy. Lyndsay Marshall plays Laura. 

The Twist: Structured as a five-act play in keeping with the Shakespearean theme, this may be most like a traditional murder mystery of any episode yet! Yes, there are certainly parallels between the story and Shakespeare’s play, but that only serves to make the mystery more tricky. Ambition, madness, treachery, obsessive love . . . turns out an actor’s dressing room is not so different from the blood-soaked castle of Dunsinane!

Score: 9/9

“The Harrowing”

Premise: This exercise in Gothic horror takes place at the home of siblings Hector and Tabitha, who have hired teenager Katy to babysit their brother Andras while they attend a rare outside event. They assure Katy that Andras will be no trouble: secluded upstairs in his bedroom, he won’t cry out because “he doesn’t have a mouth;” if he needs anything, he will ring a bell – but he never rings the bell, they say. Katy seems to have no trouble with the artwork all over the house depicting Jesus’ Harrowing of Hell or the stuffed black cat on the sofa!! As soon as the owners leave, Katy’s Goth friend Shell arrives, and the girls start to explore. And then the bell starts to ring . . . 

Cast: Shearsmith plays Hector, and the late Helen McCrory (Peaky Blinders) plays Tabitha. Aimee Ffion-Edwards stars as Katy, and Poppy Rush plays her friend Shell. For once, Pemberton does not appear onscreen. 

The twist: While there’s certainly plenty of humor in this (Rush is particularly hilarious as Shell), the writers are definitely trying to honor their love for classic horror movies. The house itself is the star here (cell phones don’t work because the house is in a “dead zone!”), and all the creepy paintings remind me of Rosemary’s Baby, a film that provides inspiration here in other ways. Every old movie you ever saw where you screamed “DON’T GO UP THE STAIRS! DON’T OPEN THAT DOOR!!” comes to mind, and Katy, bright as she seems, fulfills the role of dumb teenager quite well. That said, it does feel like something I’ve watched before many times, and as the suspense built toward the inevitable reveal of Andras and what the hell (literally!) is going on, I started hoping that Shearsmith and Pemberton might come up with a new twist on an old theme. Alas, that was not to be. The reception for this episode was divided, and I’m afraid I come down on the side of having found it weaker than the rest of the season.

Score: 6/9

SEASON TWO

(The first two episodes were directed by Guillem Morales, the third by Dan Zeff.)

“La Couchette”

Premise: Those of you who have followed me so far know how fond I am of the Adventures on Trains mystery series. I think those books inspired me to want to travel by train one day. This episode, set in a six-bunk couchette aboard a train bound for France, has completely relieved me of that wish. 

An English doctor named Maxwell is trying to get a good night’s sleep before a big job interview the next day with the World Health Organization. Alas, it is not to be as his fellow passengers arrive to share the couchette: first comes Jorg, a drunk German suffering from excessive flatulence; next are squabbling couple Kath and Les, bound for their daughter’s wedding; and finally there’s Shona, a heavyset Australian backpacker who has picked up Hugo and plans to have sex with him in her lower bunk. There’s also an unidentified passenger in the middle bunk across from Maxwell who is sleeping soundly through all the disturbance. Very soundly, as it turns out . . . 

Cast: I don’t know any reason to name these actors, who are all terrific but nobody I’ve ever heard of. Suffice it to say that Shearsmith plays Maxwell, and Pemberton plays Jorg. 

The twist: This start to Season Two has strong vibes of the premiere of Season One, with a large cast gradually entering a claustrophobic space. From there, high (and low) comedy gives way to something more disturbing. The main difference here is that these are all strangers, and it’s lovely to read that the writers sought their inspiration in Strangers on a Train and Murder on the Orient Express. The final twist – and in keeping with the show’s typical structure, it’s a double twist – is pretty easy to predict. That said, the depiction of the horrors of sharing your sleeping quarters with a tiny roomful of strangers, all of whom are perfectly pleasant but no less horrible, is good enough for me! 

Score: 8/9

“The 12 Days of Christine”

Premise: It’s really hard to discuss this one without spoiling it. Essentially, we bear witness to twelve days over thirteen years in the life of Christine, a shoe clerk, who meets fireman Adam at a New Year’s Eve party, eventually kicks out her weird roommate Fung to marry him, and deals with a series of marital and familial crises. Other people flit in an out, including Christine’s parents, her little boy Jack, and Bobby, her gay best friend and colleague. Throughout it all, Christine has visions – dare I call it a haunting? – of a man she identifies as her first boyfriend whose appearances are jarring and scary. 

Cast: Sheridan Smith excels as Christine, and the rest of the cast is equally affecting. Shearsmith and Pemberton take on smaller roles here: Shearsmith plays the man who haunts Christine, and Pemberton plays Bobby.

The twist: This is a really special episode. For one thing, it eschews the series’ typical humor for an emotional portrait of Christine’s life. We’re definitely in Twilight Zone territory here, as Christine’s increasingly fractured view of her world is setting us up for . . . something. When we finally learn what that something is, it feels like a very old story told in a fresh new way. The “clues” are all there, even if one can only guess at the solution. This is definitely the most moving episode I have watched so far; it will be interesting to see if Shearsmith and Pemberton travel this way again in future episodes.

Score: 9/9

“The Trial of Elizabeth Gadge”

Premise: At the height of the New England witch trials, two witch-finders named Mr. Warren and Mr. Clarke have been summoned by Sir Andrew Pike, the magistrate of the village of Little Happens, to find out if Elizabeth, accused by her own daughter and son-in-law, is guilty of practicing witchcraft. Mr. Warren is gung-ho over finding Elizabeth guilty as the money he earns feeds his lavish lifestyle, and he’ll find no obstacle from the villagers. Elizabeth’s son and daughter long to use her attic room for their children; Sir Andrew sees the publicity of a witch trial as a boon for the town; other townsmen see Elizabeth’s death as a financial boon or protection for secrets she knows. Mr. Clarke, on the other hand, is increasingly conscience-stricken as it seems clear that Elizabeth is an innocent pawn to the greed and lust of the other villagers. 

Cast: It’s a fantastic cast: Shearsmith plays Warren and Pemberton Clarke, while David Warner is a perverse delight as Sir Andrew, and Ruth Sheen makes for a wonderfully ambiguous Elizabeth. Funny trivia: for the trial scene, the creators nearly broke their budget hiring twelve extras; to save money, they rewrote the script to clear the court!

The twist: This is The Crucible played for laughs. It looks great and is very funny – although, given how horrific the witch trials actually were, I found the humor and the characters began to grate on me. The final twist can be seen coming a mile away, so thank goodness (literally) for the twist that immediately precedes it.

Score: 7/9

So there you have it – the first nine episodes of Inside No. 9. I don’t plan to discuss more of the show, but if you haven’t heard about it and happen to come across it, I highly recommend this twisty, turny series. Some mysteries should be so good.