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The Unmissables Bring it
REVIEWS home, lads
Everything ents that gets a big yes from us this week
THE
CULTURE KEY
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MUSIC
FILM
1
BOOKS
APPS
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DVD
#84
INSIDE NO. 9
BBC2,MONDAY3FE UARY,10P
nside No. 9 is a unique beast. Shakespearean verse, and one shot could take this concept. Now, with
Every episode – and there have entirely on CCTV. Now, as the show the new, fifth series, Shearsmith
been 25 so far – is a completely reaches its creative and popular peak, and Pemberton prove yet again
Iseparate story with its own we’ve got six new stories to enjoy. their extraordinary knack of pulling
characters, cast and setting. The the rug from under our feet.
only elements that link them are the BEYOND HALLOWEEN
fact they’ve all been written by The After four series of wonderfully varied BACK TO BASICS
League Of Gentlemen legends Steve stories, the most recent episode This time around, there are
Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, “Dead Line”, the Halloween special of stories dealing with magic, a police
who also star in them in some way, 2018, was perhaps a game-changer. It procedural, a “back to basics” episode
shape or form, and that they all take was not only a live broadcast, but was featuring monologues to camera and,
place in a “no. 9” location of some also dazzlingly bold and ambitious, first up, “The Referee’s A W***er”, a
kind, whether it be a hotel room, fooling viewers into thinking there superb story set entirely in the ref’s
a house number, or, as in this new was a technical fault during the airing changing room before, during
series, a police car with the number 9 of the one-off special while we half-time and after a key football
on the roof. They’re also all ostensibly watched Shearsmith and Pemberton, match. David Morrissey is the ref,
comedies, although they’ve always playing themselves, trying to deal Shearsmith, Pemberton and Ralf Little
been genre-bending tales, capable with what was apparently going are fellow officials and newcomer
of being as scary and/or emotional as wrong. It all climaxed in a terrifying Dipo Ola a star player. There are twists
they are funny. There’s been a silent ending that left viewers wondering throughout, and it has the cleverest,
episode, a story told backwards, what they really just saw. The episode funniest “no. 9” location reveal yet.
one in which all the dialogue was in showed just how far the creators +++++ Boyd Hilton
www.heatworld.com 1-7 February 2020
