Why We Shouldn’t Burn Down the BBC Just Yet

“Inside No. 9” – The dark comedy that will change your life

The BBC has been ‘informing, educating and entertaining’ for almost 100 years and has never been without its share of controversy. Recently, although Stephen Moffatt’s ‘Dracula’ wasn’t completely awful, they have been accused of murdering classics. For example, the badly received ‘War of the Worlds’ or the version of ‘A Christmas Carol’ which was frankly abysmal - seen in the 30% drop in viewers after the airing of the first episode. Let’s not even mention ‘Doctor Who’ where the scariest villains of late have been a racist from the future, who can’t physically hurt people and an evil tea towel (there was lots of ominous flapping –

ooh nightmares). But we shouldn’t cancel our TV licenses and join the angry mob just yet because there is a programme on telly at the moment of such magnificence, that it totally justifies the other detritus the BBC has produced…

When I first came across the BBC anthology series Inside No. 9, I was overwhelmed by the twisted humour and humorous twists. ‘The League of Gentleman’s’ Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton have created and starred in a dark comedy masterpiece which shockingly no one has ever heard of. Each episode takes place in a single location – be that the house, train carriage or karaoke room all linked by the number 9. Beside this, every episode is stand alone and wildly inventive. With only half an hour allotted to an episode, the viewer is forced to consume a whole narrative in one sitting, similar to the short horror stories of Edgar Allan Poe, which makes it deeply immersive and often chilling, without eating into your day as a series or film would. Each episode pans out almost like a play – definitely worthy of studying in English.

premise of the first episode, for example, is a group of middleclass adults playing an awkward, forced game of sardines in a large English manor house. The filming takes place almost entirely in a claustrophobic wardrobe and the more people are crushed in, the more secrets emerge about the family’s history. Other noteworthy episodes include - one with almost no dialogue about two moronic burglars attempting to steal a priceless piece of modern art; an episode filmed exclusively though CCTV cameras at a helpline centre; one written entirely in iambic pentameter based loosely on Shakespeare’s ‘A comedy of Errors’; and in the recent series, Episode 1 is set in the tense referee’s changing room with the backdrop of the league’s last and most crucial match – can they make the right decision?

Iris Taylor, L6 th

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The writers have an uncanny ability to turn a seemingly hilarious idea into a twisted poignant ending. The