Inside No.9 Pt 2

0:23 Lee Good evening, and welcome to Horror. I'm Lee.

0:26 Chris I'm Chris.

0:28 Adam I'm Peppa Pig.

0:30 Adam Fuck you, cheap bastard.

0:33 Adam I've put on, I've put on auditioning for the roll.

0:36 Adam I had a, I had a,

0:38 Lee and we are here again to discuss the amazing "Inside Number 9" as our December run-up to Christmas.

0:45 Lee which we just found out yesterday, they are doing an "Inside Number 9" Christmas, you know, scary episode special again.

0:53 Lee two days before Christmas. So that is going to be the balls. I'm fairly certain.

0:58 Adam I believe it might actually be the start of a new series as well. Or it might be because I think "Devil at Christmas", I think, preceded the series by about two weeks or something, so it's probably going to be like New Year.

1:53 Chris Oh.

1:54 Chris Awesome.

1:55 Lee So, there's going to be swearing, there's going to be spoilers as we said with the last ones. If you haven't seen these, definitely go and see them before listening to this, because we will be spoiling all the twists and the plot points.

2:08 Lee But as always, even if you don't want to, if you didn't think you're ever going to watch it and then listen to these, they're still worth watching afterwards because they're just, there's so much crammed into those 30 minutes. It's pure gold. So,

2:22 Adam Yeah.

2:23 Chris I was just going to say, it's lucky you only said 'balls' before you said the 'swearing'.

2:27 Adam Ha ha ha.

2:28 Adam It's funny, on the radio the other day a guy said 'pissed' and the presenter said, "That's fine. This is, this is an Americanism that's catching on over here. It's just all right."

2:37 Chris Okay.

2:39 Adam Yeah, but the trouble is it does mean that you have to double-think everything you see online. Was he drunk or angry?

3:25 Lee Yeah.

3:27 Adam Who wrote this?

3:28 Adam Carlton Hackham back of the Third. Oh, he was angry.

3:33 Lee so this evening we are going to be covering from Season 2, we are covering "Séance Time", and from Season 7 we will be covering "Mr King".

3:45 Lee So, shall we kick off with "Séance Time"?

3:50 Adam well, "Séance Time", as you said, Series 2, Episode 6, which seemed to be the sort of start of them almost accidentally reserving the horror episode for the last part of the series. First broadcast on the 29th of April 2015.

4:09 Lee Oh, shit. That's so long ago.

4:12 Lee It's still feels so fresh.

4:14 Adam Yeah.

4:14 Chris Yeah.

4:17 Chris Yeah, it's funny, isn't it, how good they were doing already. Even from season one. I mean, I suppose they, like we said before, they had a lot of practice with quite a few other ventures.

5:07 Adam Yeah. They did hit their stride really quickly with this show.

5:11 Lee Yeah, and again, because I knew they were big horror fans, I watched the whole of season one waiting for a horror episode. So when we got it in that last one, I was like, oh, yes, that's, and it's so good.

5:22 Lee And then yeah, when they did again in season two with "Séance Time", yeah, this one totally totally blew me away.

5:28 Lee It's that, it's that lovely thing, I know we've said it with things before, they create such a great world and you enjoy it, just how nice it is been, that you almost, it's not like an M. Night film or whatever, where you're watching it the whole time going, what's the twist going to be? Where's it going to come? You sort of forget that, especially with this one because it's so funny.

5:48 Lee And you get drawn into what jerks the characters are and the comedy of it that you forget that it's, it is going to twist at some point.

5:55 Lee Which is when it suddenly comes around, you go, oh, shit, yeah, no, this is "Inside Number 9". We're not just watching an episode of "The League", like this is going to turn on its head. It's fantastic.

6:46 Adam It's because they do excel at making them little, a lot of them, it's like a very good short story collection.

6:54 Adam Where, you know, they won't necessarily all be the same thing or the same thing, it'll be like writers trying out their, you know, oh well this was a love story, this was a horror story or whatever like that.

7:07 Adam And yeah.

7:09 Adam The, the, I think the weird thing is with this, I've been, how do you put, where is it, it's, like I said on the previous episodes I was mainly coming from the "Inside Inside Number 9" podcast, for my info.

7:28 Adam For this one it was, there's a book "The Insider's Guide to Inside Number 9" by Mark Salsbury, which is a really good book and a lovely, like just artifact in its own right.

8:25 Chris Oh wow.

8:25 Adam Like big, it's like a sort of A4 hardback with tons of pictures and all the posters recreated in there. It's, it covers series one to five. Because I think it came out just around the time series six came out.

8:37 Adam So, but obviously these, these that covers a period that they don't really cover on the podcast. So it's quite good to be able to get from there.

8:46 Lee Marries up quite nicely.

8:48 Adam But one thing you were saying about where it's like, you know, this is only their second year but they've done so well in terms of they, what they actually complain about, sort of complain about in talking about this in the book.

9:00 Adam Is that they were so, you know, they'd already got to a position where everyone was like, oh, I'll be in an episode, just give me two lines or whatever like that.

9:10 Chris Yeah.

9:11 Adam And I don't know if we've discussed it, but they have a rule that you can't have, you can't appear twice. So it's, they're the only people who will appear in multiple episodes. If you're an actor and you've been in it, that's it, you're, that's your "Inside Number 9" done.

10:08 Chris Yeah.

10:08 Adam And weirdly enough they were like, but we now feel that like Harry Adlloyd, Alice Lowe.

10:15 Chris Well, that's I would have thought Alice Lowe had been in it. Really? I was like, I'm sure I've seen her. But,

10:21 Adam But no, but it's just that sort of thing of, you know, and they're good parts. They are still funny characters and they're really, they play them really well.

10:31 Adam But yeah, but both of them I think they're kind of like, oh, we could've had.

10:33 Chris Oh, that's funny.

10:34 Adam Yeah, we could have, oh, damn, like when they write later ones, they're like, oh, we could have had that. Oh no, that would have been, you know.

10:43 Adam So.

10:45 Adam Yeah, but they, this one was apparently, oh, it's a line of dialogue from from "Beyond the Grave".

10:51 Adam David Warner says it in "From Beyond the Grave", "Séance Time".

10:59 Adam Yeah.

11:41 Lee Nice.

11:42 Lee I, yeah, the thing that caught me off guard with it, I think the first time I saw it, I wasn't disappointed, but the way it opens with the séance at the beginning and it feels too much like it hits every, it's, like with a séance, it's like they've written down what are the top 20 things you have to have in a séance? Well, it has to be a Victorian-themed room, and it has to have a creepy doll, and it's got to have an old record player, and it's got to have a, and it's all, but then when you then find out there's a TV show and it's a pretty hacky TV show, it's suddenly all you go, yeah, no, this is, this is perfect. This is exactly what they would do.

12:22 Adam Cause, cause it is, it is that almost initial disappointment of, oh, they're, they're laying it on a bit thick with this one.

12:28 Lee Precisely.

12:30 Adam You know, and then yeah, they turn it around.

12:32 Adam But, but one thing that's worth sort of considering as well is that they talk about the sequence where Steve comes in. Like Steve's character comes in after the initial sequence with Tina.

13:28 Chris Yeah.

13:28 Adam And obviously, they kind of sell it to you as the, you know, this is going to be a haunted séance story.

13:37 Adam You know, it's going to be supernatural with weirdos in a big creepy house, blah, blah, blah.

13:42 Adam But everyone's on side with it, so like the, the director in the editing process graded it differently, so it looked more like a horror film, you know, or it's got that sort of ambiance to it where something supernatural could happen.

13:57 Adam So when it's Steve's character, it's really quite flat.

14:04 Adam Because the mystery is gone at that point, and you're seeing the nuts and bolts of what they've done to make the room as it were.

14:11 Adam But even stuff like the music.

14:14 Adam So it starts off really sort of horror movie.

14:18 Lee I noticed that.

14:18 Lee Yeah, like, like the sound, the, yeah, the score really builds it up. And as you say, when Steve comes in, that kind of all just drops out entirely, makes it feel so, yeah, like that's the thing.

15:12 Lee If you're doing a show like this, you're kind of assuming that the person you're bringing in is going to play along. And when it's a person like that who's just so, you know, I'm just going to take a phone call in the middle of it or whatever.

15:24 Lee And it just totally fuck everything.

15:27 Chris Loses any like charm or magic or fear. The style is gone completely.

15:33 Chris But that's interesting that they do show that so clearly because it's almost like, you know, on one hand they're kind of proving, look, we can make something look unbelievably exactly as it should look, but also the whole thing is we can show you behind the scenes of how it's all going wrong.

15:49 Adam Yeah. Both are just done perfectly.

15:52 Adam It becomes, it becomes like that thing of, it starts off, it could be "The Woman in Black".

16:40 Chris Right.

16:41 Adam The way it's shot, and the way it's scored and everything else like that.

16:42 Adam And then it kind of becomes almost like, like a, not quite like it, because they don't really do that a lot, but a bit sort of in the spoof Alan Partridge sort of end of things where it's like backstage at a shoot with the producer and the like, couldn't give a shit make-up lady and the strappy actress.

16:54 Adam And it's just, you know what I mean, so it drops off and becomes this like industry comedy.

17:13 Adam Yeah. And the music, and then weirdly enough, even though they kill, Clive is his name by the way. The blue demon. Yeah, he does.

17:25 Chris Did they actually say it ever?

17:23 Lee Yeah.

17:27 Adam No, he just gets, I think he just gets a name in the credits.

17:30 Chris I was like tempted to watch it back just in case it had been said.

17:33 Adam Yeah.

17:34 Adam No, it's only in the credits I think that they actually mention it, but yeah, he's, but even at that point, it's still quite a funny thing.

17:41 Adam because you've had the build-up with Steve coming in with shit on his shoes and having mouthy phone calls and being a bit of a just a a geeze.

18:33 Adam And then he lamps him.

18:35 Adam And but also, and he's the only one who genuinely cares.

18:39 Lee Yeah.

18:40 Chris Yeah.

18:41 Lee I thought that.

18:42 Adam You know, because he only starts talking about like, what's going to happen to me after they, after the initial bit but he's like, no, he's all right. And then he, you know, whereas everyone else is literally,

18:52 Adam even probably Gemma, the producer, is probably the only other one who sort of kind of has a level of concern, but that's more like a professionalism that this has happened on set.

19:05 Lee Yeah, and everyone else is just immediately ass-covering. As you say, apart from Steve who then suddenly becomes like a genuine person. He's like, oh, I'm so sorry, I've done this, it was an accident, I didn't realize.

19:15 Lee Yeah, and then he goes from this kind of cockney wide boy who's come in and destroyed the show to actually being the only one who seems like a real human being.

20:06 Adam Yeah.

20:07 Adam Well, it's all stuff like, oh, I've got to get the wig back, cuz that's a higher.

20:10 Lee Yeah.

20:11 Adam And, you know, and sort of, well, don't, don't touch the body, yeah, but they're going to mark.

20:15 Adam And you sort of, and also, I mean, obviously Reece's Terry is a classic Reece Shearsmith study in absolute arsehole.

20:26 Chris Yeah. Yeah.

20:28 Adam You know, because he, I mean, even that where it's like, you know, don't worry, you know, I'm sure it'll be fine. And then he walks, then Steve's character walks out of the room and he's like, right, we need to do a check on him, see if he's got a history of mental illness and then we'll pin this on him.

20:42 Adam I'm not going back to fucking bingo ads.

20:44 Adam Cause that's the thing, it's not even like he is in any trouble in that sense.

20:49 Chris No.

20:51 Adam But it is just immediately, it's like what is it? Oh, well, I'll probably just be blacklisted from the industry.

20:57 Adam And, the channel cancels again.

20:59 Adam And yeah, it's, yeah, he's just such a just a wonderful prick. Yeah.

21:50 Lee I I found that with the, with the medium character as well, you know, her constant, oh, can I have some, can I have this? Can you please take these? Can I have a stool for my feet because my ankles were swelling? And then later on when someone says, do you want a chair to put your feet on? She's like, I'm not an invalid.

22:06 Chris Yeah.

22:07 Lee You were just asking 10 minutes ago for something like that.

22:10 Chris She's great, like they all fit in so well. Everyone they've had. So far that I've seen.

22:15 Chris But,

22:15 Chris yes. So who is she?

22:18 Adam That's Alison Steadman.

22:18 Adam And she is just fucking brilliant and she's been in so much stuff.

22:24 Adam And probably, at the moment, at the moment you probably have to mention Pam in "Gavin and Stacey", is probably what she's widest known as for the moment.

22:34 Chris right. Yeah, yeah.

22:36 Adam But, I mean, she's.

22:38 Chris It's funny how old that is now.

23:20 Adam Well, when, when you look at, you look at her career, I mean, she was like, she did two, she did two plays for today, Mike Lee plays for today, and they were, they're like still talked about now, which is "Nuts in May" and "Abigail's Party".

23:36 Adam And again, two totally different characters in it, cuz I mean, "Abigail's Party" she's this sort of like slowney housewife who's just sort of, "Nova Roche, how are you?" And then, and then "Nuts in May" she's very sort of wide-eyed and dippy, sort of hippie girl, really.

23:55 Adam or like, yeah.

23:57 Adam And just, but she's like, she's, and then she's in "The Singing Detective".

24:04 Adam And, she's been in "Awe from Black".

24:07 Adam And she was in.

24:09 Adam Do you remember "Let Them Eat Cake", which was French and Saunders did a French Revolutionary sitcom that I think lasted a series?

24:16 Lee No, but I will definitely be looking that up.

24:18 Adam And she, she was Madame du Plonch in that. It was sort of like the one of the main protagonist. But yeah, "Karaoke and Calla Lazarus", "Gone to the Dogs", "Z Cars", "In Sickness and in Health", "Worse Week of My Life", "Pride and Prejudice", "Fat Friends", "Coogan's Run".

25:04 Adam and then film-wise, I mean, she's been in, she's been in most Mike Lee films.

25:25 Adam I believe she was actually married to Mike Lee. So that might have been.

25:29 Lee Oh.

25:30 Adam That might have been a thing, but I think they she was still in them after they weren't together, so it wasn't like.

25:36 Adam but yeah, she's in like "Life is Sweet", "Secrets and Lies", "Topsy Turvy".

25:40 Adam she's in "Clockwise", you know, the John Cleese film.

25:44 Chris Yes.

25:45 Adam Yeah. And, "Ventures of Baron Munchausen", "Will", "Private Function".

25:51 Adam "Life and Death of Peter Sellers", "Shirley Valentine".

25:53 Adam I really want to see her role as "Crazy Butcher" in "Looney in the Woods".

25:58 Adam Which seems to be a cheap horror film that's just on IMDB. But yeah, she's "Crazy Butcher" in that apparently.

26:45 Lee I wanna see that.

26:48 Adam She's just done so much stuff and she is always excellent.

26:51 Adam I mean, to be honest, like Gavin and Stacey, definitely not my cup of tea. I could happily skim fucking James Cordon and leave him out for the vultures.

27:02 Adam But she is the real saving grace of that program because her character is just fucking brilliant and she is just so funny in it.

27:10 Adam And it's, but yeah, she is terrific in this.

27:13 Adam It's like that bit with her, what do they say, I auditioned for Marvel. They said I wasn't sweet enough. Fuckers.

27:20 Lee I'd forgotten all about that until re-watching it tonight and I really did roar at that.

27:26 Adam It's the weird thing as well, because I think it's, they're a bit cagey, but I think that this is either,

27:33 Adam this is horror stories that Reece and Steve have heard from working within television and theater. Of divish actors and or actresses and, you know, sort of like just crew malfunctions, dysfunctional sort of shooting and stuff like that.

28:21 Adam So I think it's, yeah, it all seems to be stuff that they know a lot, because they do tend to return to, actually more the theater than telly, but they do return to both of them in a few episodes.

28:34 Adam sort of starting points for stuff. There's the one, what is it, "Shut up and wait", where it's the guy who's on location filming and is just sitting in someone's house that's been designated the green room.

28:47 Lee That's right. Yeah.

28:48 Lee Oh God, that's a good one. And that, that one as well could almost count as horror. Cuz that's pretty awkward from beginning to end.

29:06 Adam Yeah.

29:07 Lee Oh, yeah.

29:08 Adam And then there's the, there's the theater one as well, where it's the, basically it's the dresser, where it's the understudy to the guy who's.

29:19 Lee Oh, yeah, I'd forgotten about that one. See, that's the thing with this, there's so many good ones that you, you end up forgetting some, not because they're not great, but just because there's so many episodes that are just,

30:10 Chris And they fit so much in. This is.

30:13 Chris And it's like, and that's, I guess in a way that's what gives it its replayability.

30:16 Chris Like I could watch the "Séance" again and get so much more from it again.

30:21 Chris Because when you're watching it the first time, you're sort of, you're trying to think what is going to happen next, like where is this going and you, you know, you can't help but wonder if if you've clocked on to any of it at all.

30:33 Chris and then yeah, to watch it again and really appreciate each of the actors and yeah, what they're doing.

30:39 Adam Well, also just overall as a production, like we were saying about where it sort of switches mood completely in every sense, it's not, you know, it doesn't continue with the same type of music or anything else like that. It's shot differently, it's lit differently and things.

30:56 Adam But then to actually be able to turn that back on and it works at the end, because they have, because they do then take it down the horror route quite heavily, you know.

31:53 Adam I must confess, even when I first watched this, I was a bit, I was never sure of the jump scare at the end.

32:01 Adam I just thought it was a bit, it was weird, it was like, it it's beneath you, lads.

32:07 Adam You know what I mean?

32:08 Adam I just, I just felt no, you didn't need to do that, lads. You're better than that.

32:12 Chris But, how many times, how many times did you jump scares?

32:15 Chris I'm assuming.

32:16 Lee Very rarely. I think that's why.

32:17 Lee They do, kind of.

32:19 Chris They are trying everything at some point.

32:22 Lee I think I do agree with you, but I just think it just, I do think jump scares are cheap, but in this, it, it did make me laugh both times. And it has made Jennifer scream both times that they did it.

32:35 Lee So like it's definitely, yeah, it definitely works. It's because it has got that comedic thing that you don't have to take it too seriously, so I think you can get away with doing something a bit cheesy because it's so tongue-in-cheek.

33:29 Adam Oh, it doesn't ruin it overall as a whole. It's just that last moment, you know. So,

33:35 Adam and but though I, I still, because apparently they did have trouble working out how they were going to end it, because they weren't sure if they were going to cut to the actual viral video of the boy pissing himself.

33:47 Adam Because that was, that was the other sort of, the inspiration for this was.

33:54 Adam There was a Radio 4, special in 2010 called "The League of Gentlemen's Ghost Chase". if you can track it down, it's really fucking good.

34:06 Adam But basically, it's the four of them, so Reece and Steve and Mark Gatiss and Jeremy Dyson, and they go to, I can't remember the name of the place but they basically go to one of the reputedly most haunted places in Britain.

35:03 Adam and it's genuinely, it's genuinely worth hearing because it's so, it's them, so it's so fucking funny anyway.

35:14 Adam much like their commentaries and stuff.

35:16 Adam Which is a shame we don't get any for "Inside Number 9".

35:19 Adam Because their commentaries were like, oh great, I've got double the amount of stuff to watch here now.

35:24 Adam Because I will watch the commentary.

35:26 Adam But the, and yeah, they did a, they did a séance in that and Mark Gatiss was wearing his, I've read MR James back-to-back rationalist hat.

35:34 Adam I was saying, can I ask why he's not speaking in Norman French?

35:40 Lee Yeah.

35:41 Adam And, you know, "Stalls of Barchester" stuff.

35:45 Adam And, and then right at the end of it they said that they, there's a bit where they do hear a knock, and then basically at the end of it, it was Mark fucking about anyway.

35:55 Chris Ha ha ha.

35:57 Adam Even after he'd gone through all the sort of rational stuff with the medium and then it was yeah, because apparently like Reece was like, yeah, but we did hear that knock and Mark just went, and how did you know that wasn't me?

36:41 Chris Yeah. Oh, God.

36:42 Lee Such a bastard. but the other, the other thing was, and we've all seen variations of it, but a a YouTube video of someone jumping out on someone as like a Halloween prank.

36:51 Lee Oh, and getting.

36:52 Adam And the bloke just lacing him in the face.

36:55 Lee Yeah.

36:57 Adam Yeah, and it was, I mean, it's like you see a lot of it with like cameras from haunted house, like haunted houses in America during Halloween and stuff like that.

37:09 Adam There's like a bloke comes out with a chainsaw. someone just belts him one.

37:12 Adam Also because yeah, you can't allow for that. You might catch the wrong person's flight or fight response.

37:27 Lee Yeah.

37:30 Adam so it sort of stemmed from that as well, but I think they were also a bit, at that point they were a bit annoyed.

37:38 Adam Because nowadays it would be, I mean, listening to last podcast, it appears to be TikTok. But, then they said that it was like, yeah, we can slave our guts out over six episodes of "Inside Number 9" and literally any entertainment place was like, yeah, but can you make a clip that's going to go viral on YouTube?

38:22 Adam Cause it's had that many hits or whatever. And yeah, I think there was a, there was an element of bitterness there anyway, that it was like, oh, for fuck's sake, you know, we've gone all the bother of this and then they've they've turned it, yeah, but can you, is there a clip you can put on YouTube and everyone will watch it now?

38:55 Lee just to stem from this, so if we, so if it's about time we jump into the next episode, but I did want to mention similar to this, I saw a Shutter exclusive called "Downstream" last week.

39:03 Chris Oh, yeah.

39:04 Lee and it's, it's basically, it's that, it's a viral YouTuber who does like, you know, stunts to get views. Things like getting smuggled across the border in the boot of a car and all that kind of stuff.

39:19 Lee and basically, there's a massive up raw people, those people saying, some of the stuff you've done is kind of borderline racist. So he loses his sponsor, etcetera. So in an attempt to regain his audience, he spends Halloween night on his own, with cameras set up all over this little shack in the woods.

40:09 Lee and it it goes proper full-on Evil Dead.

40:28 Chris All right.

40:29 Lee And it's absolutely brilliant.

40:31 Lee I think it is Shutter exclusive.

40:33 Lee It's so worth watching.

40:34 Lee It was one of those, the guy's such a total jerk. and yeah, it just goes so spectacularly wrong for him.

40:43 Lee And it's all, you know, it's all footage from the cameras set up around the house and he's got like a body cam and stuff.

40:49 Lee But yeah, it's that thing, you know, like this, like someone who's risen to fame doing a kind of practical jokey type thing, and then suddenly public demand just, you know, the public turns on him. And he's desperate to do something to regain that. And that's what I was thinking of watching this.

41:45 Lee I was like, it's just like "Downstream" I watched last week. Yeah.

41:50 Lee Check out that.

41:52 Adam But the, I think yeah. Cuz, the director Dan Zeph also did "The Trial of Elizabeth Gatch", which is another very good episode.

42:02 Chris Oh, that's what I've got.

42:03 Adam but he did, he directed for "Dr Who" and "I deal" and sort of bits and pieces.

42:08 Adam But he does, again, he seemed to have been quite heavily involved with them as they developed it.

42:14 Adam and, but I've got to give a a notice to the nameless Clive, which is a guy called Dan Starky.

42:23 Adam And you'll have to give me a moment's indulgence as I list the fact that he is Commander Strax, Commander Score, Commander Jazz, Kgar, Slivid, Sendag, and Shallow, and Plark, the Sontaron.

43:21 Adam So that is, the full list, he is basically he's a regular Sontaron Commander Strax in "Dr Who".

43:28 Adam But yeah, he also played loads of ones leading up to that and since then.

43:33 Adam And it's just because they're a clone race, so they've really gone for it.

43:36 Adam But yeah.

43:37 Chris nice.

43:38 Adam But they, as they said, so he was actually quite used to being covered in prosthetics as well.

43:44 Adam And also at one point you may have to bleep this, Lee, I don't know how happy he'd be to, how his name, but it really does remind me of Adam Loder.

43:54 Chris Ha ha ha.

43:56 Lee Ha ha ha.

43:58 Chris Yeah, there's definitely something there.

44:00 Adam It's the hair, it's the walk, everything.

44:02 Adam You just.

44:04 Adam For those who have no idea, that's just someone we know.

44:11 Lee

44:11 Lee Yes, so, if we now jump across to our next episode, so we covered "Mr King".

44:19 Chris Yes.

44:20 Adam Yeah.

44:20 Lee Again, they snuck it in this time, so as we said, they generally do the horror ones later in the series, if not the very last episode, and this time they've put it in in the second episode. So it really pulled the rug out from underneath us.

44:35 Lee with an amazing bit of folk horror.

44:38 Chris Yeah. I think they really, really turned this one at the end. I did not expect it to go as far as it did.

44:45 Lee Fantastic.

44:46 Chris Yeah.

44:49 Chris Yeah, and like everyone watched the other two and, you know, the first season, it's like, I'm still am sort of shocked where it does go sometimes.

44:58 Chris I just you think you should get used to, but yeah, no, it's.

45:02 Chris I was, I was thinking what is, what is going to be happening here and, you know, they absolutely lead you down some paths.

45:06 Chris But, it's, it's not at the end.

45:09 Lee I did think that watching it again this time, knowing that Chris was watching it.

45:14 Lee I was like, I'm wondering how far Chris got in before he was like,

45:17 Lee I think I'm watching the wrong episode, because this isn't horror at all.

45:22 Chris Yeah.

45:22 Lee But yeah, it's going, it's so well done, it's Yeah. It absolutely takes off.

45:27 Chris Yeah.

45:30 Chris Yeah.

45:31 Adam It's it's weird as well because it's very funny, then very serious in its own sort of way, but still maintaining a,

45:38 Adam and then yeah, just kicks off, fuck me at the end.

45:47 Chris Yeah. He leaves you right on that edge point of how far serious is this going to go, because clearly they're tugging at some elements and it's like, oh, no, and then yeah, like you say, it's funny again.

45:58 Chris You think it's not somewhere else.

45:59 Chris And yeah.

46:00 Chris

46:00 Chris But I suppose I was trying to think, have they, like this was seems to be by far the most people and they're all children in it.

46:06 Adam Yeah, the majority of them, I think were.

46:07 Adam I think the, yeah, there's, oh well there's Winnie, the cleaner, Annette Badland.

46:12 Chris Yeah.

46:13 Chris Yeah. No, she's great.

46:14 Chris Yeah.

46:15 Adam Yeah, well, she, well, she was, I, I've got to, again, I'm sorry, but this, this, this has been a kind of Who heavy episode in a way. But she is Margaret Blain, aka Blondfell Futch Pass of Daise LaVine in "Dr Who".

46:25 Adam but she's also, she's just turned up in loads of things over the years.

46:30 Adam Cuz she was in "Inside Victor Lewis Smith", she was the nurse in that.

46:35 Lee And, she, I know her from most recently, she was in "Man Down" where she played the cleaner who ended up having unexpected sex with Greg Davies. Yes. And then recently she has become the new autopsy, the person who does the autopsies, in Midsummer Murders.

47:25 Chris Oh, really?

47:26 Lee Yeah, and she's really good in that. Apology, that's the word. She's in, she's in "Jabberwocky", she's Griselda Fishfinger in "Jabberwocky".

47:36 Adam Oh, yeah.

47:37 Chris Yeah.

47:38 Adam No, she's.

47:38 Lee She's really, really good.

47:39 Adam and, captives, "Beyond Bedlam", which was a film that got banned for no fucking reason, as far as I could tell, cuz it was cap. but she was, another thing that I'm going to have to mention, she was in, she was in a thing called "Archer's Goon", which was just a really good weird kids TV show. But she played like, there was a set of siblings who basically ran this town, and she was basically the arms industry.

48:39 Adam but yeah, no, Annette Badland's just fucking brilliant and and I think she, I think she's still in "EastEnders" at the moment. But no, she's, she's so good in it.

49:09 Adam And they they said, that, sort of she brought a bit more of the flirtatious nature with it and everything. And so, yeah, I think Reece said that he was almost like, I I was just reacting normally because it was just sort of like, I just didn't expect that.

50:02 Adam And then,

50:03 Lee Well he says, is that fantastic bit when she comes in and he's down on his knees taking the photograph and he said, I'm sorry, we were just discussing a possible art product. She's saying, oh, I thought he was taking photos of your cock.

50:29 Chris Yeah.

50:30 Adam But, and and Steve, weirdly enough, I mean, this is a very comedic role for him.

50:34 Adam And it's like, I, I didn't know you from Alan, Adam, oh sorry, Adam, we didn't know.

50:44 Chris But it's that contrast of how creepy he is as well.

50:47 Chris Because he he he plays all, you know, all three. He's he's a creepy headmaster, he's a decent headmaster.

50:53 Chris And he's, he's funny. Like it's again.

50:57 Adam Cuz it takes, cuz it takes so many twists and turns and it's actually, especially because it's "Inside Number 9", you do have that thing where it's like, right, this could just go straight down into like, this could just be a child abuse storyline, frankly.

51:08 Lee I I got to the point where I was like, all right, so the headmaster's a pervert. And he's just making excuses to take inappropriate photographs of the teachers.

51:17 Lee Especially when he finds the stack of photos. You're like, well, that's definitely where this is going.

51:21 Adam I only noticed it on the on the rewatch of this yesterday.

51:25 Adam But some of them have been rated with stars. Some of them, some of the Polaroids of cocks have got like two gold stars, gold stars. So obviously Gold Star.

51:34 Adam Oh, that was a good one. You know.

51:36 Adam But it's that classic, it's the classic, it's the classic folk horror thing of bringing someone into a community and the entire community is against them and fooling them and driving them to this situation.

51:48 Adam Which is the Wicker Man, Red, White, Red Dress. I was going to say, but I was going to say Midsummer because I haven't seen either of those. I haven't seen probably that many. Yeah, yeah, like they've condensed that into 30 minutes again masterfully.

52:04 Lee that end bit with the kids, I mean, kids are creepy at the best of times. But the kids in the mask is creepy. But yeah, then when the grownups come in in the outfit as well, that that thing with the baby's, the baby doll's head on it is just horrifying. Literally, as she came out, I went, fucking hell. Like it's just so visceral and so odd.

52:27 Chris And it's, and it's the super glue as well. Like, cuz they, they they tease you with it, super glue, but then we lift up his arms. Oh no, it's Yeah.

52:33 Adam Yeah, when he pulls his arm and it's going somewhere else.

52:38 Chris Yeah.

52:39 Adam But, but also the lovely thing as well that even when,

52:44 Adam the headmaster comes in at that point, there's the possibility of it.

52:49 Chris It might is the.

52:50 Adam Well, is the comedy going to be that he'll come in and just go, what have they done to you? What have you done to your mouth?

52:56 Adam And then he could, it could have just gone that he would just leave them to it.

52:59 Adam And that would be the punchline almost.

53:02 Adam But it's like, oh, well, you'll probably know best and then just disappear off or whatever. But then actually he's part of it.

53:08 Lee drawn into the woods.

53:10 Adam Yeah.

53:11 Adam And apparently the whole thing. This all start, this all came from because they were trying to find different "Number 9s".

53:20 Adam Fluorine is, number nine on the periodic table.

53:26 Adam So that led them down the route of like, would it be someone gluing themselves as a protest.

53:30 Adam Like environmentalists using it as a protest, like gluing themselves to something because of, they're adding fluorine into it.

53:37 Adam And then it was a child is doing a protest, so she superglues herself to her teacher.

53:46 Adam And then they were kind of, they were kind of trying to work it that it would be like the fluorine chain.

53:52 Adam Of like, you know, more and more of them get glued together and so on and so forth.

53:57 Adam And that's where the sort of Greta Thunberg stuff comes in and the environmentalism bits comes in and stuff.

54:02 Adam But apparently the other, the other idea was they said about being blackmailed by a child.

54:08 Chris Yeah.

54:09 Adam Was the other sort of plot strand that obviously they wove into it.

54:14 Chris Yeah.

54:15 Adam And,

54:16 Adam But yeah, so.

54:18 Adam And he's.

54:18 Adam He's quite nice.

54:19 Adam To see.

54:19 Chris And especially.

54:20 Chris And I've forgotten her name.

54:22 Chris What's the girl's name?

54:24 Adam It's Carrie, isn't it?

54:24 Chris Carrie.

54:25 Chris Well done.

54:26 Adam Yeah, no, she, she plays fantastically.

54:27 Lee Oh yeah.

54:28 Adam No, she's.

54:28 Adam She's really, really good.

54:30 Adam the, Louise Hoper who directed this has done episodes of "Sandman" and "Witcher".

54:35 Adam lots of documentaries.

54:37 Adam but she also did "Wise Owl" for this series.

54:42 Chris okay.

54:43 Adam Now, when when you see "Wise Owl", Chris, it's this isn't a spoiler. It has a public information film in it called "Wise Owl", which is like, you know, the Charlie says, it's that kind of a thing where it's like this sort of heart warming animation. And "Wise Owl" tells you not what to do, blah, blah, blah.

55:03 Adam And they've actually, they turned up on set and didn't realize.

55:13 Adam The production team had put posters of "Wise Owl" translated into Welsh in the wall.

55:19 Lee You know what. This time I was. I paused a bit where you could see the whole classroom. And I was checking everything on the walls because I'm like, I know these sneaky bastards. There's going to be something in here worth finding. I didn't find it. Well, yeah, it's because I don't speak Welsh, so that's why I missed it.

55:33 Adam But they had, obviously the previous teacher was Mr. Hardy, which is a reference to Robin Hardy who directed "The Wicker Man".

55:43 Adam and just at one point, this was going to be Tom from "Tom and Jerry".

55:48 Adam Have you seen that episode, Chris?

55:49 Chris No.

55:50 Adam It's, I think it's series one where Reece and his girlfriend are in a flat and then Steve is a tramp who moves in, but basically takes over his life.

55:55 Chris Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah.

55:58 Adam And they were, yeah, so,

55:59 Adam Reece's character in this was going to be Tom, but they were kind of like, actually, doesn't really matter. Not connected that anyone's really going to be that bothered about or anything. So.

56:13 Adam Yeah.

56:15 Lee Awesome. So, right, so Adam, what are the two episodes we are covering on our next episode?

56:18 Adam Next episode, we have "The Harrowing" and appropriately, the Devil of Christmas.

56:22 Lee Oh.

56:22 Chris Excellent.

56:23 Lee Okay.

56:23 Lee Right.

56:23 Lee To cover loads again.

56:24 Chris Yeah.

56:25 Lee Excellent.

56:26 Lee Right, so thanks everyone so much for listening, everybody. Go and check out those episodes and enjoy your Christmas. Good night.

56:32 Adam Good night.

56:33 Chris Good night.

56:35 Chris No, no.

56:35 Adam No, no.