I'm going through the series quickly enough, so here's a rundown of the second series. All episodes are written by Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton with the fourth and fifth episodes directed by them. The remaining episodes are directed by Guillem Morales and Dan Zeff.
Episode 1: La Couchette
Series 2 opened with an episode that also took in a confined space, just like the first series. This time it's a sleeper carriage with a slew of different passengers. There's a husband and wife named Les (Mark Benton) and Kath (Julie Hesmondhalgh) who are heading to their daughter's wedding along with Australian backpacker Shona (Jessica Gunning) and her posh boy lover Hugo (Jack Whitehall). Shearsmith played the English doctor Maxwell while Pemberton appears as a drunken German named Jorg. Add a dead body in the carriage, an overambitious main character and another character being revealed as someone else and this made for a good opening episode. 7/10
Episode 2: The 12 Days Of Christine
And now for a Christmas episode during a series rather than as a special. Well, not fully Christmas though it does factor into it quite a bit. Shoe saleswoman Christine (Sheridan Smith) met Adam (Tom Riley) and the two of them fell in love. As the episode progressed we saw the highs and lows of Christine and Adam's relationship, including having a son named Jack and various characters including her parents (Michele Dotrice and Paul Copley), gay best friend Bobby (Pemberton) and roommate Fung (Stacy Liu). The twist of the episode involved Christine being in a car crash with an unknown stranger (Shearsmith) watching her life flash by her certainly added a bitterness along with the use of Time To Say Goodbye. Sheridan Smith gave an incredible performance here. 9/10
Episode 3: The Trial Of Elizabeth Gage
After eight contemporary episodes, the show finally delved into a period setting and it's a Witch Trial in 17th Century England. The unfortunate Elizabeth Gage (Ruth Sheen) finds herself accused of witchcraft and all because her daughter, Sarah Nutter (Sinead Matthews) and Thomas (Jim Howick) wanted the extra space in their home. Sir Andrew Pike (David Warner) - a man clearly too kinky to torture held the trial with the help of Witch Hunters Mr Warren (Shearsmith) and Mr Clark (Pemberton). The former was overzealous in his methods to get Elizabeth to confess her guilt while the latter erred on the side of cautious. By the end of the episode, one of them was proven right and both of them paid the price for their obligations to their duties. A fantastic episode overall. 9/10
Episode 4: Cold Comfort
The director debut for Shearsmith and Pemberton on this series and it's a good one to do. A crisis hotline named Comfort Support Line should've been the perfect place for Andy (Pemberton) to help troubled people but instead, it brought him absolute hell. Mainly because of a troublesome caller named Chloe, whose actions caused the death of another caller while driving Andy mad as things further along. Throughout the episode we met other workers such as Joanne (Nikki Amuku-Bird), Liz (Jane Horrocks) and new worker, Michael (Tony Way). However it's the boss, George (Shearsmith) that proved to be the biggest thorn for Andy, especially when rumbled as the voice behind Chloe, leaving behind more carnage in his wake. 8/10
Episode 5: Nana's Party
Time for a birthday party. The nana of the piece being Maggie (Elsie Kelly) who has turned 79. Her daughter - the right uptight Angela (Claire Skinner) has decided to throw her mother a party, constantly fretting and exasperated by her husband, Jim (Pemberton) being more fixated on pulling a prank on Pat (Shearsmith) than helpimg out. Pat also happened to be married to Angela's sister, Carol (Lorraine Ashbourne) and throughout the episode, Carol revelled in revealing home truths about her crumbling marriage while also taking apart Angela and Jim's. There's also two near death experiences, an amusing birthday card and a stripper (Christopher Whitlow) who give Maggie quite a memorable birthday. 7/10
Episode 6: Séance Time
Ah, yes, for the second series finale, let's have an episode focused on a séance. It was an interesting idea as we opened with the unwitting Tina (Sophia McShera) being led by Hives (Shearsmith) towards Madame Talbot (Allison Steadman), only just things to go awry and a blue demon (Dan Starkey) to show up and terrify poor Tina. Except, it wasn't a real séance but a bit for a hidden camera show named Scaredy Cam. Hives was really the presenter Terry trying to revive a dead show and Madame Talbot and the blue demon were just actors named Anne and Clive respectively. Along with the director Gemma (Cariad Lloyd) and makeup artist, Amanda (Alice Lowe), a hit show was nearly on their hands. That was until Pete (Pemberton) accidentally killed the blue demon and Terry found himself haunted by a creepy voice of a dead child, ending this episode on a rather creepy note. 9/10
All episodes of Inside No. 9 are available on BBC iPlayer and Amazon.
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