Inside No. 9. Image shows from L to R: Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith
Inside No. 9

Inside No. 9

  • TV comedy drama
  • BBC Two
  • 2014 - 2023
  • 49 episodes (8 series)

Dark comedy anthology series from Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton. Each episode focuses on the goings-on around something to do with the number 9.

  • The final series is coming in May
  • JustWatch Streaming rank this week: 216

Press clippings Page 51

Inside No. 9 - The Trial of Elizabeth Gadge review

It's the most overtly comic of the series so far, but crucially, and what makes it work so brilliantly, is the serious tone of the piece.

Dodo's Words, 12th April 2015

Cold Comfort. Today is Andy's first day as a volunteer at the Comfort Support Line's call centre, but serval big surprises await him in the land of the lonely and the desperate. Could it really be true that, as his fellow counsellor Liz confides, "the volunteers are more fucked up than the people ringing in"? Another expertly crafted comic treasure. Don't miss it.

The Observer, 12th April 2015

The latest in Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton's superb second series of unsettling playlets, this centres around the volunteers art a Samaritans-like helpline and the newest recruit, Andy (Pemberton), who starts to receive regular calls from the mysterious Chloe. She is a troubled teenager, but is there more to her rants about an unhappy home life and threats to overdose? It co-stars Jane Horrocks, on fine form as another volunteer and the drama is shot to look as though it is being picked up on security cameras, which provides very effective for the denouement. Another corker.

The Sunday Times, 12th April 2015

Having produced two small masterpieces in a row, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith have set an impossibly high standard for themselves and it's only fair they should be allowed a breather. In tonight's episode, a volunteer (Pemberton) has joined a Samaritans-type call centre called Comfort Support Line. "Whatever the caller wants to talk about," says his boss (Shearsmith), "we offer active listening." There are two volunteers (Jane Horrocks and Nikki Amuka-Bird) who loathe one another, and the boss may be more disturbed than any of the callers. It's a promising set-up, but the episode doesn't unfold with the same simple, logical elegance as others in the series.

David Chater, The Times, 11th April 2015

Review: Inside No. 9 - 'The Trial of Elizabeth Gadge'

Entertaining fare, but too predictable and clichéd to prove genuinely memorable.

Dan Owen, Dan's Media Digest, 10th April 2015

Pity Elizabeth Gadge (Ruth Sheen). After being accused of consorting with the devil, she has to face two of England's most feared witch-finders, Clarke and Warren (Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith). She faces being burned at the stake, and her trial is the most exciting event in Little Happens since "the escaped cow". What unfolds, as the anthology series continues, is essentially a Hammer Horror played for laughs. As dimwitted local bigwig Sir Andrew Pike, David Warner quite brilliantly makes the most of every line he's given.

Jonathan Wright, The Guardian, 9th April 2015

Radio Times review

We're back in the 17th century for the trial of Elizabeth Gadge (Mike Leigh favourite Ruth Sheen), an old crone accused of witchcraft by her own flesh and blood. The trial bodes well for local bigwig Sir Andrew Pike (David Warner), keen to attract visitors to the dismal village of Little Happens, whose sole attractions hitherto have been the green, a duck and a bench. Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton play dual witchfinders, Mr Warren and Mr Clarke. (See what they did there?)

The loose anthology format certainly allows them to indulge their passions and peccadillos, here mining the Vincent Price classic, Witchfinder General, for flavour and chuckles. From the start, the arch performances call to mind a League of Gentlemen sketch where they dismissed a DVD movie for having "too much actinggg", but this dark tale soon works a devilish spell.

Patrick Mulkern, Radio Times, 9th April 2015

Tonight's macabre tale is totally different from anything that has gone before in this series, but it is equally accomplished and very, very funny. In an inspired pastiche of a 17th-century witch trial, Sir Andrew Pike (David Warner) has summoned two of England's most notorious witch finders, named Mr Warren and Mr Clark in tribute to the late actor, to try a defenceless old woman (Ruth Sheen) accused of consorting most lewdly with the devil. "Let us at least hear the testimony of the poor old crone," says Clarke, "before we reward ourselves with gold for burning her to death." It's like a long-lost Monty Python sketch, only better.

David Chater, The Times, 9th April 2015

Preview: Inside No. 9 - The Trial of Elizabeth Gadge

This episode is clearly a labour of love for the team.

Bruce Dessau, Beyond The Joke, 9th April 2015

Review: Inside No. 9, The Trial Of Elizabeth Gadge

There's no messing inside this week's No. 9; the gags are rolling rapidly as we're dropped into a barn in puritanical England for this week's installment the offbeat comedy series.

Nic Wright, Giggle Beats, 9th April 2015

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