Onto the sixth series of this anthology show and it's certainly a good selection of stories. All episodes are written by Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton and directed by Guillem Morales and Matt Lipsey.
Episode 1: Wuthering Heist
If you like your series openers to be rather lyrical like Zanzibar, then this episode will definitely appeal. For me, it's an okay opener follower on a heist in the style of Commedia dell'arte. Our characters include an undercover cop named Columbina (Gemma Whelan) who has infiltrated a diamond robbery gang led by Pantalone (Paterson Joseph). In that gang you also had Hortensia (Rosa Robinson), Scaramouche (Shearsmith), The Doctor (Pemberton), Arlo (Kevin Bishop) and Mario (Dino Kelly). Needless to say, it's a heist that's not quite the success it could've been with various characters reading ahead of script, secret loves and covers blown. Not my favourite of opening episodes but it had its moments. 6/10
Episode 2: Simon Says
We all know that Game Of Thrones had an extremely unsatisfying series finale and for this episode alone, a series titled The Ninth Circle was a very thinly veiled cover for that. The creator, Spencer Maguire (Pemberton) has had to deal with everyone telling him that the seventh season finale was a poor ending for the popular show and worse that, two fans - Gavin (Nick Mohammed) and Simon (Shearsmith) have made it their mission to force Spencer into commissioning a more fan pleasing series finale. It's an idea even Spencer's agent Loretta (Lindsay Duncan) could get on board with but as the episode unfolded, Spencer eventually gained the upper hand from his overzealous admirers. Let's just say that Spencer wasn't above killing for a good idea. 8/10
Episode 3: Lip Service
A lonely man in a hotel room with a woman he hired. Not quite the way this episode played out as it had some good surprises. The lonely man in question being Felix (Pemberton) who hired lip reader Iris (Sian Clifford) to interpret a conversation between his estranged partner and her boss, Dimitri while also avoiding scrutiny from hotel manager, Eric (Shearsmith). It's an episode that touched on loneliness and seemed to hint at a mutual attraction between Felix and Iris. That was until the very last moment when Iris's true motives were revealed and it gave the episode a brutal ending. I wasn't sure of this one at first but I liked it more on further watching. 8/10
Episode 4: Hurry Up And Wait
It's an episode about the making of a real life child disappearance in a drama. You've got James (Shearsmith) playing an extra named The Bobby and when he wasn't inadvertently rubbing the star of the production Adrian Dunbar (as himself) up the wrong way, he was being ignored by production assistant Jo (Bhavna Limbachia) and making false accusations about a family in relation to missing boy Ryan. Or were they false accusations? The family question - Stan (Pemberton), Oona (Pauline McLynn) and their infantalized daughter, Bev (Donna Preston). It's a solid instalment with an ending that might have confirmed James's suspicions after all. 7/10
Episode 5: How Do You Plead?
The best episode of the series and one I thought would've been the finale. It's the supernatural themed episode and they're the ones that I gravitate towards the most. You've got the dying Webster (Derek Jacobi) being assisted by his nurse Bedford (Shearsmith). The men converse between pithy jabs at one another but Webster knew that his time was coming to an end. When midnight approached, the Lift Attendant (Pemberton) was revealed to be the Devil and he was there to collect on a pact he had made with Webster. Needless to say, Webster tried to replace himself with Bedford only for the latter to reveal that he wasn't so good after all. A brilliant episode and after being a voice role in The Devil Of Christmas, it was nice to see Derek Jacobi in live action here. 9/10
Episode 6: Last Night Of The Proms
And for something different. Usually the finales go the supernatural route but for this finale, we got what the title said. A very UKIP style family with husband Mick (Pemberton) and Dawn (Sarah Parish) celebrating the event with the latter's racist father, Ralph (Julian Glover) as well as Dawn's sister, Penny (Debra Gillett) and Penny's liberal but closeted husband, Brian (Shearsmith) and son, Oliver (Jack Wolfe). Add a mysterious man named Yusef (Bamshad Abedi-Amin) into the chaotic mix along with a subplot involving Dawn's heritage, a religious epiphany and of course a character death and this finale ended this series on a decent note. 7/10
All episodes of Inside No. 9 are available on BBC iPlayer and Amazon.
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