Inside No. 9 - Why do the British love dark comedy?

Our love for dark, twisted humour is something unique to our national make-up in Britain. Here's 5 reasons we, as a nation, prefer the black stuff...

Review: Inside No. 9, 1.6 - 'The Harrowing'

The Harrowing was a splendid half-hour of creepiness and rich atmosphere, punctured by occasional jokes and silly lines.

How Inside No. 9 was talked about on Twitter

With the final episode of the series being aired last night, Inside No. 9 has created an entirely new genre of it's own with four of the six episodes producing near identical tweet patterns.

After a never less than captivating series that has added a comic sheen to Tales Of The Unexpected, this harrowing series finale has more than a hint of Hammer House Of Horror about it. Siblings Hector and Tabitha reside in a gothic mansion where the temperature is religiously maintained just below freezing point. Precisely the kind of location that would make the prospect of minding Hector and Tabitha's bedridden brother Andras a chilling task on several spinewringingly unsettling levels, as babysitter Katy soon discovers.

Helen McCrory and Reece Shearsmith star as Tabitha and Hector, sibling proprietors of the final episode in this blackly comic series. We're in a gothic mansion with a sinister secret at the top and schoolgirl Katy (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) may have bitten off more than she can chew when she agrees to housesit. It's a trip flickering with demonic humour but by the time we reach the closing scene we've gone over to the dark side completely. Sleep well.

Radio Times review

The last and nastiest visit to the ninth house on the left, which this episode is a looming, draughty pile out of place on a suburban street. Aimeé-Ffion Edwards, as excellent here as she was in Skin and Walking and Talking, is a schoolgirl babysitter who's been promised a bumper payday but immediately finds that the job, set by icy householder Helen McCrory, is too creepy to be worth the cash.

To say more would spoil, but as the creaking terror takes hold you'll marvel at how Steve Pemberton (absent) and Reece Shearsmith (in full Hammer horror mode) can pepper the elegant script with gags without breaking the spell.

Preview: Inside No 9 - The Harrowing, BBC Two

Draw the curtains, turn off the light. It's the last Inside No. 9, sob, and it's a genuine fright fest.

Will there be a better comedy series in 2014? Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton's twisted, and indeed twisty, tales are too dark for some viewers' blood, but they're the work of storytellers at the top of their game. Each self-contained episode slyly mixes silly jokes and proper horror. Start with the beautifully choreographed A Quiet Night In.

TV review: Inside No. 9 - 'The Harrowing'

After six episodes, there's little more to be said about the quality of the writing, the pitch-perfect delivery of the performances, the matchless pleasure of anticipating a brand new story every week, like a series of fiendish, hilarious Christmases, but what can be said about The Harrowing is this; the abrupt, abject revulsion of it is wretch-inducing.

Inside No. 9, BBC2's dark comedy thriller series from half a League of Gents, Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, who were also behind Psychoville, has been a critical hit but has not excelled in the ratings. Episodes have attracted a not-so-thrilling average of 800,000 viewers, but fans of the tales with a twist will be relieved to hear that a sequel has been commissioned. The decision was taken before the series was broadcast - if the number-crunchers had seen the figures maybe they would have had second thoughts. Catch the final edition, The Harrowing, with Helen McCrory guesting, on Wednesday.