The Television Revolution has left couch potatoes the world over spoiled bloody rotten. HBO, Netflix and the like are producing innovative, distinctive shows all over the shop; in between catching up with Saul Goodman or seeing how Daenerys Targaryen and her dragons are getting along, it’s no surprise that some people just don’t have the time for terrestrial, homemade television. And why would they? At the present time the BBC could be accused (whisper it) of being worryingly devoid of innovative, distinctive ideas, typified by the regurgitation and reinvention of programmes we have already seen before… say hello POLDARK!
So it’s with overwhelming delight that we welcome INSIDE NO.9 back into the fray, written and starring Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton and airing on (hooray!) BBC Two. The premise of INSIDE NO.9 is that every episode is it’s own, individual vignette; what links the episodes is that they all take place behind a door marked number 9. The first series was wickedly witty, murderously macabre and perspicaciously performed i.e. bloody brilliant. The second episode of the first run, ‘A Quiet Night In’, was particularly laudable; it’s an episode almost entirely dialogue-free and follows two burglars, played by Shearsmith and Pemberton, as they attempt to steal an art piece from the avant-garde home of a couple played by Denis Lawson and Oona Chaplin (who, pertinently, is the granddaughter of the ultimate silent film star, Charlie Chaplin). It had preeminent television critics frothing at the mouth, declaring the episode ‘mindboggling’ and praising it for it’s originality.
‘La Couchette’, the first episode of the second series, doesn’t quite scale the heady heights of ‘A Quiet Night In’, however it’s still thirty minutes of television jam-packed with ideas, laughs and twists. Set in a six-bunk-bed carriage of a sleeper train travelling through France, we are introduced to a motley crew of characters who cram into the claustrophobic confines like sardines in a tin. Shearsmith plays Maxwell, a curt medical professional who is determined to get 40 winks before an important job interview. He is disturbed from his attempted slumber by Pemberton’s Jorg, a boozed-up Kraut with grotesque flatulence and sweatiness. The arrival in the carriage of cheery Northerners Les and Kath (Mark Benton, Julie Hesmondhalgh), travelling to their daughter’s wedding, further disturbs Maxwell who becomes increasingly irritated and venomous. The gang is completed by an Aussie backpacker (Jessica Gunning) who’s travelling Europe, one shag at a time, and Jack Whitehall. Jack Whitehall playing Jack Whitehall essentially. Except he’s a gap year student. Which isn’t to say it’s a bad performance by Whitehall, quite the contrary, it’s still very funny watching him send up his posh boy image. In fact all the performances are wonderful in ‘La Couchette’ which makes it immeasurably watchable as does the storyline which rattles along briskly just like the train they’re on.
This being INSIDE NO. 9 there is a morbid plot twist when a rigid cadaver tumbles from a previously overlooked bunk bed, understandably shocking the occupants of La Couchette No.9. This instigates some truly deplorable human behaviour, it’s unlikely you will see corpse-spooning on the BBC ever again, but that’s the idea of the show; to push some boundaries and have the viewer wincing and guffawing in equal measure. It would be selfish to reveal what happens in the final moments of the show as it takes quite a sinister turn; just get on the iPlayer and watch it.
So, we have Shearsmith and Pemberton smashing it out of the park with INSIDE NO. 9. We have Mark Gatiss their former THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMAN co-writer and performer producing the globally adored SHERLOCK and the fourth man of the troupe, Jeremy Dyson, writing and script editing things like PSYCHOBITCHES and THE WRONG MANS… There is a staggering amount of genuinely quality television being made between THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN alumni. Mainly for the BBC incidentally; maybe there isn’t such a worrying lack of innovative, distinctive ideas in terrestrial, homemade television after all… due to Shearsmith, Pemberton, Gatiss and Dyson. It’s just an idea but perhaps we should start a petition to see them seize power of the BBC and hopefully this would see an end to unnecessarily bland costume dramas and superfluous D.I.Y shows… now that would be a real Television Revolution.
INSIDE NO.9 continues on Thursday 2nd April at 10pm on BBC Two.
