Written by Jeremy Dyson And Mark Gatiss And Steve Pemberton And Reece Shearsmith
Directed by Steve Bendelack
Benjamin: "You know, Aunty Val. Sometimes you can't go back."
Val: "I know. I know."
Benjamin: "But you can visit."
Val: "Yes, you can visit."
It's a bit odd that these series of specials came out when they did. They were two years too early to commemorate the show's 20th anniversary but at the same, it was also 15 years after the series had ended. Excluding the movie, which these specials don't acknowledge.
At the time both Shearsmith and Pemberton had put out three full series of Inside No. 9 and Gatiss had completed work on both Sherlock and Doctor Who. To revisit this series with these specials was a way of giving audiences one last hurrah for many of the characters that stoked opinions.
First of all there was Reverend Bernice Wooddall, who had now become Mayor of Royston Vasey after brokering a deal with Papa Lazarou for her freedom (and other characters). Of course that freedom came at a cost with a spate of new disappearances getting more and more noticed.
Oh and then there was possible disappearance of Royston Vasey itself. There were plans to merge the village into a bigger and local xenophobes Edward and Tubbs had no problem holding a journalist (Lyndsey Marshal) and council worker (Gatiss) hostage in order to prevent such a thing. Let's just say the ending for the hostage wasn't particular pleasant for the negotiator (David Morrissey).
As for other stories in this three part event, poor Pauline was suffering from dementia with both Mickey and Ross trying to help her. Then there was the hapless Geoff killing Pauline by mistaking her for Mike's wife, Cheryl. Not a great way for Pauline to go.
Other than that, the creepy Pops returned to antagonise both of his sons, played by Gatiss and Shearsmith as well as his daughter in law (Sian Gibson) but he got a deserved comeuppance of his own. As for the Dentons, Harvey died and Val and the twins used Benjamin as a vessel for Harvey until they realised they preferred Harvey being dead.
- Episode titles for this series were Return To Royston Vasey, Save Royston Vasey and Royston Vasey Mon Amour.
- Victims of the Wife Mine included Iris and Tubbs. Papa Lazarou was wisely relegated to a very brief cameo.
- Chinnery still inadvertently kills animals, Barbara was militant in their activism, Les McQueen ran a floor polishing business and Legs Akimbo were no more with Ollie relegated to being a teacher for Year 9.
- Charlie was shown to be in a relationship with a man named Gordon (Gatiss) while Stella had an abusive toy boy lover named Scott.
- Mickey was aware of Pauline and Ross having sex and even joked about it. Pauline nearly broke Ross's jaw when her memories were being triggered.
- Chronology: Several years since the events of the third series. Bernice in particular had aged a bit.
As a group of specials, this was a good bunch of episodes. I don't think we needed them as such but it was a nice revisit of a show that while still funny in large parts, has not aged well in others. Now I just have to go and revisit another show from this particular team.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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