Let's Talk About Inside No. 9 Live Episode

[Stephen R. Fletcher]

Looking forward to seeing this tonight! Anyone else watching? I only started watching the show a few months ago but fell in love with it and think it’s brilliant.

I may get some flack for this but I’ve never really watched The League of Gentlemen (saw the movie in the cinema) or Psychoville. I think I may give Psychoville a watch though as this show has really made me become a fan of Reece Shearsmith & Steve Pemberton as writers and performers.

[si]

Went to see The League of Gentlemen Live Again last month, great stuff (Went to see them 18 years ago, too).
I caught up with s2 of Inside No.9 late, because Reece Shearsmith acted like a complete cunt on Twitter for a good while.
Anyway, thought s3 was amazing, and Psychoville before that was fantastic, too.
Definitely going to be watching live tonight. Of course, if anything goes *really*, horrifically wrong, it certainly won’t be repeated, will it?

Halloween specials. What was the best? Well, Ghostwatch, obviously. That aside, I’d have to go for the Paul Daniels special. That was amazing.

Noticed that even though the Beeb wouldn’t do this actually on Halloween, they do have Watchdog Live on Wednesday evening. Sounds ominous.

[Dave]

I’ve always been a fan of LoG, and I maybe love Inside no. 9 even more, so I’m really looking forward to this.

They always do something interesting with format so I’m hoping the live aspect is more than just a gimmick and is going to be connected to the story somehow.

[clem]

Yep, looking forward to it even though the latest series was a bit disappointing I thought. Big LoG fan. Saw them in Sunderland on the recent tour and Chubby Brown was in the audience!

[clem]

> I’m hoping the live aspect is more than just a gimmick and is going to be connected to the story somehow.

I’d put money on it.

[Warbodog]

Can’t watch live, but looking forward to catching up. One of my favourite series of the decade. Absolutely no idea what they’ve got planned, but I’m expecting some kind of scripted catastrophic error or Ghostwatch weirdness.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

That felt like a bit of shit Ghostwatch, which is already a bit rubbish.

The gimmick wore off as soon as it was revealed as there was no-where for it to go knowing it was all fabricated.

[Warbodog]

Their Christmas one did the deconstructing-TV gimmick much better and was more suspenseful throughout. Still some funny bits, but a shame that half the programme wasn’t even the programme.

[si]

I stayed watching The Mash Report on BBC2 for twenty minutes afterwards, I was so sure they were going to do something else to frighten the bejaysus out of us.
The BBC3 ad immediately following the ep – after their conversation about it during the episode, I was certain that something was going to happen there too.

[Seb Patrick]

Ghostwatch, which is already a bit rubbish

[Jonsmad]

People were fooled, on twitter. I love a prank or a meta approach. Well done on making some event TV. I made sure i was home for it, when normally i watch on catch up these days.

The vicar phone story intrigued me. I liked the breakdown and switch to an old episode. But question if that worked then after that, for the people dumb enough to turn off. I found it rather than really being a well executed prank or great episode overall it was a more a clipshow approach homaging previous things related to the kind of joke or trick it was doing itself. Bold but wonky. When a tweet is the best bit of watching telly. I would have prefered them to play it straight for longer making more subtle mistakes supposedly live and then really pull steve’s electrocution as a the big shock, which was a bit done well. in a live behind the scenes bit or something like that. For me it was a disjointed bag and the fact people are calling it “ground breaking” when it was so full of “homage” to things that broke the ground before it etc. I find a depressing reflection on audience mentality. But then i dont watch tv and tweet at the same time. I kind of hope the vicar phone story and Stephanie cole surface in the next series in a more conventional tale.

[Nick R]

I am a complete horror wuss (“The Harrowing” from series 1 and the Psychoville Halloween special are pretty much my limit) and so as soon as the silent CCTV footage turned up I went NOPE and watched most of it like this, in case of screen-filling jump scare. I wondered if the quietness of the dressing room scenes was a cunning way of getting us to turn up the TV volume! (I had the subtitles on at the very start of the episode – they appeared one word at a time, with delays and errors like in news or sport broadcasts – but I didn’t check how they were presented in those dressing room scenes.)

So watching it like that I didn’t exactly get the full impact of it, but I can admire in theory what they were doing. I liked John Hoare’s thread on Twitter about it taking advantage of live TV as a medium, doing things that wouldn’t work anywhere near as well if viewed as a time-shifted recording or a made-for-streaming programme.

I know that a big part of the joke was the way that the mobile phone story from the start is intended to be the by-the-numbers version of an Inside No 9 plot – it’s precisely what someone would imagine when thinking of a typical episode of the programme, so that when it cut back to it later on, we could imagine the connections in between. But if they had done a straight version of that story for the full episode, I could probably have coped with that, and watched it properly!

I liked the Black Mirror joke!

[International Debris]

Ghostwatch, which is already a bit rubbish.

This deserves a ban, surely?

[cwickham]

The vicar phone story is, in retrospect, obviously Reece and Steve taking the piss out of the show, though.

[International Debris]

Oh yes, it’s very much a really bad, Inside No 9-by-numbers story.

[si]

I was kind of sceptical, but in a good way, if you know what I mean. I knew that if something went wrong, there was a very good chance that it was going wrong on purpose. I started out watching stuff that might not go as it should while playing live – what if the egg hadn’t exploded when it should? What if the radio hadn’t played in when he turned it on? What if the phone didn’t ring, or that pen didn’t work? When the sound cut out the second time, I never once thought of switching off, I just smiled, knowing something special was going to happen. I’d suspected beforehand that they’d play with the Live aspect, and ho a bit meta, but that was definitely better than I thought it was going to be.

[genericnerdyusername]

The episode was splendid. My heartiest congratulations to the writer-performers.

[Dave]

I enjoyed it a lot. As soon as the sound cut out I was smiling, and I really liked the way it played with the conventions and expectations of live TV as a driver for the story.

Plus, as a big fan of Ghostwatch I loved all the various nods. Proof that a lot of the old tricks still work, as I found it genuinely tense by the end.

[Paul Muller]

Something about pitch-distorted music that never fails to freak me the fuuuuuck out.

[clem]

Very much enjoyed it overall. When ‘A Quiet Night In’ started I thought okay *maybe* it’s gone wrong for real. The new BBC Two ident really helped to sell it. Didn’t let my guard down for a second, though.
I loved how, once the cat was out of the bag, they really went for it with the IN9 pappyshow, ramped up the hokiness with Steve covered in blood, “in pieces”, the head in the microwave. Looking forward to watching it again and being able to see those earlier bits of the fake episode for what they are. With hindsight a few things maybe did seem a bit off about them, like the brownies joke.

[si]

When the sound went the second time, I wondered if there were going to be major speeches missed out which would then somehow affect the resolution of the episode.

But thinking about it, that would have probably been a bit shit.

[Jonsmad]

Now I’ve read the Digital Spy review, the sun newspaper of the press run up, and understand how nearly all the clips related to the past of Granada studios, and they even say the setting ficitiously of the studio within the show is supposed to be granada studios, the whole thing makes a lot more sense now. It isnt a mishmash clip show of ideas, i take back most of what I said, its very much a whole idea. I just wasnt aware of all that Granada stuff, those who read things this week from press or had a history of most haunted or other storys about Granada must have loved all this injoking far more emensely than i was able to take in. Genius and groundbreaking comments are well deserved. happy to admit the part that went over my head (in a microwave).

[Dave]

I wasn’t aware of that stuff beforehand, but I thought it was covered pretty comprehensively by the clips in the show itself.

[bloodteller]

I’ve never seen Inside No. 9 before, but the discussion of this episode really interested me so I checked it out on BBC iPlayer. Obviously I missed out on the Live aspect of it, but either way that was a genius piece of TV and it scared the shit out me despite knowing beforehand it was all made up

[Dave]

If you enjoyed it I definitely recommend checking out the previous series. There’s maybe nothing quite as format-breaking as this episode, but there’s lots of fantastic inventiveness in other ways.

[bloodteller]

Just checked out The Devil Of Christmas episode, which was again very cleverly done. I like how much they managed to make it look like something that was made in the 80s, and the twist ending was rather disturbing, especially when you realize a lot of the director’s remarks earlier are hints at it

It’s very creative, I think- they don’t just tell the story the way a TV show would normally tell it. There’s a bit more initiative in the way it presents itself

[Warbodog]

They tracked down rare vintage cameras for that episode to get the authentic 70s/80s video look, with dodgy light trails like early Red Dwarf. Really creepy, nasty episode.

The only Inside No 9 I haven’t enjoyed is the karaoke one from series three, because karaoke does my head in. Don’t know what my favourite is, there have been too many good ones now and they suit different moods.

[Dave]

The same thing always happens when I try and pick my favourite Inside No 9 episode: I choose one, then mention another, and before I know it I’ve pretty much named all of them.

I think that 12 Days Of Christine is virtually flawless, Tom and Gerri worked really well, Bernie Clifton’s Dressing Room was very touching and Zanzibar was brilliantly clever.

The Bill is also great and Diddle Diddle Dumpling is quite heartbreaking. But The Understudy might be the funniest.

[si]

This is interesting (plus a Tweet or two in the thread).

@jackkibblewhite @CRAIGWILLIAMS4 @wheeltappers https://t.co/mdG8W0TfEP

— Graham Kibble-White (@grahamkw) November 1, 2018

[thomasaevans]

I’ve never seen it, but heard nothing but praise for the series. I hear Stephanie Cole is in it too? She’s terrific.

[Ian Symes]

One of my many favourite things about Inside No 9 is that the cryptic crossword episode actually taught me how to do cryptic crosswords.

[clem]

The cryptic crossword episode of David Baddiel Tries to Understand taught me how to do them. I still can

[clem]

Sorry, premature comment posting. That should say I still can’t actually do them though. I mean I’ve never come close to finishing one.

[clem]

Not a proper one, anyway. I can usually do the Overlaps in the Unison magazine.

If I had to pick a favourite IN9 it’d be Seance Time. The ending properly shits me up. The title is a reference to a line in From Beyond The Grave, a film there are a few little nods to in TLoG, so it’s a fun one to watch if you’re a fan.

[Dave]

I like the way they always try and shit you up a bit with the final episode of each series.

[Danny Stephenson]

OK, I’m very late to this thread. I mentioned this in the PipesCast, but broadcast interruptions scare the fuck out of me.

I thought that it was excellently played. I was watching it live (I tend to watch things after the fact on demand, but this was diferent). I was expecting something to go slightly wrong, like Si said with the egg or the radio, but then the sound cut out and I was genuinely annoyed the music died down and then I realised that the dialogue was muted, so I thought “maybe this is part of the plot, maybe he’s deaf or something and that’s the point”. and then the “Technical Difficulties” board came up and I was pissed.

When the show came back on and was still muted, I was just annoyed by that point. And even on a Whatsapp group. I’d announced that I’m not watching it anymore. By which point A Quiet Night In had started, and I wasn’t paying much attention to it, until I heard the music wavering, and when I looked up to see the ghostly figure in the window, my stomach lurched. That proper, horrible feeling when something isn’t right. I haven’t felt that in ages.

Then the camera’s switched and the 4th wall came tumbling down. And from then on I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen. I even remembered to breath every once in a while. I thought it was fantastic.

I tried to watch it again straight afterwards but I couldn’t bring myself to watch it so soon. I had to wait until the sun was up before I could manage it.

And like Si said. I couldn’t trust my TV from that point on that night. I was expecting something to happen. Even at 11pm when Steve mentioned it would repeat, but at that point is was supposed to the the Ring, and I noped the fuck out of that for the night.

[Dave]

It was the apparition in the window of A Quiet Night In that was my first real chill too. Really cleverly done.

[bloodteller]

I was over at a friend’s place the other night, and everyone was discussing that we should watch something scary (since Halloween had just passed). I decided to put on Dead Line, obviously without explaining to anyone what it was beforehand. When the audio first cut out one friend was already scared, and by the time the A Quiet Night In part came on everyone was shitting bricks. The general opinion on it was that it was ‘excellent’ and a good recommendation, although really really scary

One friend with a sharp eye pointed out you can actually see the ghostly figure in the window before it’s right up against it and clawing at it (it’s at the back of the garden, slowly making its way forward) and that there’s multiple occasions later on where you can see similar creatures hiding in the background, reflected in mirrors erc. which I hadn’t spotted before. So once again I was freaked out by it

[clem]

Yep, I watched it again this afternoon and noticed a few things I missed first time. So glad I was able to watch it live but I think I enjoyed it even more and was more freaked out this time. One of the best episodes they’ve done. Pleased to see they’ve included the continuity announcement leading into the programme on iPlayer because of course it’s part of the episode.

[Danny Stephenson]

One friend with a sharp eye pointed out you can actually see the ghostly figure in the window before it’s right up against it and clawing at it (it’s at the back of the garden, slowly making its way forward) and that there’s multiple occasions later on where you can see similar creatures hiding in the background, reflected in mirrors erc. which I hadn’t spotted before. So once again I was freaked out by it

Yes!. I realised that too. It’s very much a “Pipes Sighting” scenario looking out for all the appearances…

[Dave]

It was just like Pipes.

My wife and I kept pointing them out to each other as we each seemed to miss half of them. Chills each time.

[clem]

But did anyone spot the hare?

[si]

Maybe I’m just the cynical type, but when the sound cut out the second time, I was thinking that it was going to be a plot point – the chunks of dialogue that was missing were important, and I thought it might play into the story. When the continuity screen appeared, I was already thinking it wasn’t purely an unfortunate technical problem, and the idea of turning off didn’t even begin to form in my tiny little mind.

[Author]

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