Inside No.9 Pt 2
00:39:58
About
Having gorged ourselves on the first layer, it’s time to move to the next plastic tray in our “Inside No.9 Christmas Selection Box”. (Will this increasingly stretched metaphor hold up to the strain for next week? Only time will tell.). First we’re looking at time “Séance Time”, where carefully curated terror can be erased by dog shit on the shoe; and “Mr King”, which gives us a lovely serving suggestion for tadpoles. SPOILERS AHOY SO PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE WATCH THESE FANTASTIC EPISODES BEFORE WE RUIN THE MANY TWISTS AND TURNS SO MASTERFULLY CRAFTED BY SHEARSMITH AND PEMBERTON. Watch (or re-watch), and join us.
Transcript
Show full transcript
LeeGood evening, and welcome to Horror. I'm Lee.
ChrisI'm Chris.
AdamI'm Peppa Pig.
AdamFuck you, cheap bastard.
AdamI've put on, I've put on auditioning for the roll.
AdamI had a, I had a,
Leeand we are here again to discuss the amazing "Inside Number 9" as our December run-up to Christmas.
Leewhich we just found out yesterday, they are doing an "Inside Number 9" Christmas, you know, scary episode special again.
Leetwo days before Christmas. So that is going to be the balls. I'm fairly certain.
AdamI 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.
ChrisOh.
ChrisAwesome.
LeeSo, 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.
LeeBut 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,
AdamYeah.
ChrisI was just going to say, it's lucky you only said 'balls' before you said the 'swearing'.
AdamHa ha ha.
AdamIt'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."
ChrisOkay.
AdamYeah, but the trouble is it does mean that you have to double-think everything you see online. Was he drunk or angry?
LeeYeah.
AdamWho wrote this?
AdamCarlton Hackham back of the Third. Oh, he was angry.
Leeso 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".
LeeSo, shall we kick off with "Séance Time"?
Adamwell, "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.
LeeOh, shit. That's so long ago.
LeeIt's still feels so fresh.
AdamYeah.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisYeah, 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.
AdamYeah. They did hit their stride really quickly with this show.
LeeYeah, 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.
LeeAnd then yeah, when they did again in season two with "Séance Time", yeah, this one totally totally blew me away.
LeeIt'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.
LeeAnd 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.
LeeWhich 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.
AdamIt's because they do excel at making them little, a lot of them, it's like a very good short story collection.
AdamWhere, 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.
AdamAnd yeah.
AdamThe, 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.
AdamFor 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.
ChrisOh wow.
AdamLike 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.
AdamSo, 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.
LeeMarries up quite nicely.
AdamBut 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.
AdamIs 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.
ChrisYeah.
AdamAnd 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.
ChrisYeah.
AdamAnd weirdly enough they were like, but we now feel that like Harry Adlloyd, Alice Lowe.
ChrisWell, that's I would have thought Alice Lowe had been in it. Really? I was like, I'm sure I've seen her. But,
AdamBut 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.
AdamBut yeah, but both of them I think they're kind of like, oh, we could've had.
ChrisOh, that's funny.
AdamYeah, 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.
AdamSo.
AdamYeah, but they, this one was apparently, oh, it's a line of dialogue from from "Beyond the Grave".
AdamDavid Warner says it in "From Beyond the Grave", "Séance Time".
AdamYeah.
LeeNice.
LeeI, 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.
AdamCause, cause it is, it is that almost initial disappointment of, oh, they're, they're laying it on a bit thick with this one.
LeePrecisely.
AdamYou know, and then yeah, they turn it around.
AdamBut, 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.
ChrisYeah.
AdamAnd obviously, they kind of sell it to you as the, you know, this is going to be a haunted séance story.
AdamYou know, it's going to be supernatural with weirdos in a big creepy house, blah, blah, blah.
AdamBut 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.
AdamSo when it's Steve's character, it's really quite flat.
AdamBecause 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.
AdamBut even stuff like the music.
AdamSo it starts off really sort of horror movie.
LeeI noticed that.
LeeYeah, 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.
LeeIf 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.
LeeAnd it just totally fuck everything.
ChrisLoses any like charm or magic or fear. The style is gone completely.
ChrisBut 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.
AdamYeah. Both are just done perfectly.
AdamIt becomes, it becomes like that thing of, it starts off, it could be "The Woman in Black".
ChrisRight.
AdamThe way it's shot, and the way it's scored and everything else like that.
AdamAnd 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.
AdamAnd it's just, you know what I mean, so it drops off and becomes this like industry comedy.
AdamYeah. And the music, and then weirdly enough, even though they kill, Clive is his name by the way. The blue demon. Yeah, he does.
ChrisDid they actually say it ever?
LeeYeah.
AdamNo, he just gets, I think he just gets a name in the credits.
ChrisI was like tempted to watch it back just in case it had been said.
AdamYeah.
AdamNo, 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.
Adambecause 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.
AdamAnd then he lamps him.
AdamAnd but also, and he's the only one who genuinely cares.
LeeYeah.
ChrisYeah.
LeeI thought that.
AdamYou 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,
Adameven 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.
LeeYeah, 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.
LeeYeah, 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.
AdamYeah.
AdamWell, it's all stuff like, oh, I've got to get the wig back, cuz that's a higher.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd, you know, and sort of, well, don't, don't touch the body, yeah, but they're going to mark.
AdamAnd you sort of, and also, I mean, obviously Reece's Terry is a classic Reece Shearsmith study in absolute arsehole.
ChrisYeah. Yeah.
AdamYou 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.
AdamI'm not going back to fucking bingo ads.
AdamCause that's the thing, it's not even like he is in any trouble in that sense.
ChrisNo.
AdamBut it is just immediately, it's like what is it? Oh, well, I'll probably just be blacklisted from the industry.
AdamAnd, the channel cancels again.
AdamAnd yeah, it's, yeah, he's just such a just a wonderful prick. Yeah.
LeeI 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.
ChrisYeah.
LeeYou were just asking 10 minutes ago for something like that.
ChrisShe's great, like they all fit in so well. Everyone they've had. So far that I've seen.
ChrisBut,
Chrisyes. So who is she?
AdamThat's Alison Steadman.
AdamAnd she is just fucking brilliant and she's been in so much stuff.
AdamAnd 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.
Chrisright. Yeah, yeah.
AdamBut, I mean, she's.
ChrisIt's funny how old that is now.
AdamWell, 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".
AdamAnd 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.
Adamor like, yeah.
AdamAnd just, but she's like, she's, and then she's in "The Singing Detective".
AdamAnd, she's been in "Awe from Black".
AdamAnd she was in.
AdamDo you remember "Let Them Eat Cake", which was French and Saunders did a French Revolutionary sitcom that I think lasted a series?
LeeNo, but I will definitely be looking that up.
AdamAnd 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".
Adamand then film-wise, I mean, she's been in, she's been in most Mike Lee films.
AdamI believe she was actually married to Mike Lee. So that might have been.
LeeOh.
AdamThat might have been a thing, but I think they she was still in them after they weren't together, so it wasn't like.
Adambut yeah, she's in like "Life is Sweet", "Secrets and Lies", "Topsy Turvy".
Adamshe's in "Clockwise", you know, the John Cleese film.
ChrisYes.
AdamYeah. And, "Ventures of Baron Munchausen", "Will", "Private Function".
Adam"Life and Death of Peter Sellers", "Shirley Valentine".
AdamI really want to see her role as "Crazy Butcher" in "Looney in the Woods".
AdamWhich seems to be a cheap horror film that's just on IMDB. But yeah, she's "Crazy Butcher" in that apparently.
LeeI wanna see that.
AdamShe's just done so much stuff and she is always excellent.
AdamI 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.
AdamBut she is the real saving grace of that program because her character is just fucking brilliant and she is just so funny in it.
AdamAnd it's, but yeah, she is terrific in this.
AdamIt's like that bit with her, what do they say, I auditioned for Marvel. They said I wasn't sweet enough. Fuckers.
LeeI'd forgotten all about that until re-watching it tonight and I really did roar at that.
AdamIt's the weird thing as well, because I think it's, they're a bit cagey, but I think that this is either,
Adamthis 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.
AdamSo 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.
Adamsort 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.
LeeThat's right. Yeah.
LeeOh 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.
AdamYeah.
LeeOh, yeah.
AdamAnd 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.
LeeOh, 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,
ChrisAnd they fit so much in. This is.
ChrisAnd it's like, and that's, I guess in a way that's what gives it its replayability.
ChrisLike I could watch the "Séance" again and get so much more from it again.
ChrisBecause 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.
Chrisand then yeah, to watch it again and really appreciate each of the actors and yeah, what they're doing.
AdamWell, 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.
AdamBut 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.
AdamI must confess, even when I first watched this, I was a bit, I was never sure of the jump scare at the end.
AdamI just thought it was a bit, it was weird, it was like, it it's beneath you, lads.
AdamYou know what I mean?
AdamI just, I just felt no, you didn't need to do that, lads. You're better than that.
ChrisBut, how many times, how many times did you jump scares?
ChrisI'm assuming.
LeeVery rarely. I think that's why.
LeeThey do, kind of.
ChrisThey are trying everything at some point.
LeeI 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.
LeeSo 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.
AdamOh, it doesn't ruin it overall as a whole. It's just that last moment, you know. So,
Adamand 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.
AdamBecause that was, that was the other sort of, the inspiration for this was.
AdamThere 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.
AdamBut 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.
Adamand it's genuinely, it's genuinely worth hearing because it's so, it's them, so it's so fucking funny anyway.
Adammuch like their commentaries and stuff.
AdamWhich is a shame we don't get any for "Inside Number 9".
AdamBecause their commentaries were like, oh great, I've got double the amount of stuff to watch here now.
AdamBecause I will watch the commentary.
AdamBut 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.
AdamI was saying, can I ask why he's not speaking in Norman French?
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd, you know, "Stalls of Barchester" stuff.
AdamAnd, 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.
ChrisHa ha ha.
AdamEven 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?
ChrisYeah. Oh, God.
LeeSuch 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.
LeeOh, and getting.
AdamAnd the bloke just lacing him in the face.
LeeYeah.
AdamYeah, 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.
AdamThere's like a bloke comes out with a chainsaw. someone just belts him one.
AdamAlso because yeah, you can't allow for that. You might catch the wrong person's flight or fight response.
LeeYeah.
Adamso it sort of stemmed from that as well, but I think they were also a bit, at that point they were a bit annoyed.
AdamBecause 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?
AdamCause 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?
Leejust 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.
ChrisOh, yeah.
Leeand 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.
Leeand 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.
Leeand it it goes proper full-on Evil Dead.
ChrisAll right.
LeeAnd it's absolutely brilliant.
LeeI think it is Shutter exclusive.
LeeIt's so worth watching.
LeeIt was one of those, the guy's such a total jerk. and yeah, it just goes so spectacularly wrong for him.
LeeAnd 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.
LeeBut 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.
LeeI was like, it's just like "Downstream" I watched last week. Yeah.
LeeCheck out that.
AdamBut the, I think yeah. Cuz, the director Dan Zeph also did "The Trial of Elizabeth Gatch", which is another very good episode.
ChrisOh, that's what I've got.
Adambut he did, he directed for "Dr Who" and "I deal" and sort of bits and pieces.
AdamBut he does, again, he seemed to have been quite heavily involved with them as they developed it.
Adamand, but I've got to give a a notice to the nameless Clive, which is a guy called Dan Starky.
AdamAnd 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.
AdamSo that is, the full list, he is basically he's a regular Sontaron Commander Strax in "Dr Who".
AdamBut yeah, he also played loads of ones leading up to that and since then.
AdamAnd it's just because they're a clone race, so they've really gone for it.
AdamBut yeah.
Chrisnice.
AdamBut they, as they said, so he was actually quite used to being covered in prosthetics as well.
AdamAnd 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.
ChrisHa ha ha.
LeeHa ha ha.
ChrisYeah, there's definitely something there.
AdamIt's the hair, it's the walk, everything.
AdamYou just.
AdamFor those who have no idea, that's just someone we know.
Lee
LeeYes, so, if we now jump across to our next episode, so we covered "Mr King".
ChrisYes.
AdamYeah.
LeeAgain, 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.
Leewith an amazing bit of folk horror.
ChrisYeah. I think they really, really turned this one at the end. I did not expect it to go as far as it did.
LeeFantastic.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisYeah, 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.
ChrisI just you think you should get used to, but yeah, no, it's.
ChrisI was, I was thinking what is, what is going to be happening here and, you know, they absolutely lead you down some paths.
ChrisBut, it's, it's not at the end.
LeeI did think that watching it again this time, knowing that Chris was watching it.
LeeI was like, I'm wondering how far Chris got in before he was like,
LeeI think I'm watching the wrong episode, because this isn't horror at all.
ChrisYeah.
LeeBut yeah, it's going, it's so well done, it's Yeah. It absolutely takes off.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisYeah.
AdamIt's it's weird as well because it's very funny, then very serious in its own sort of way, but still maintaining a,
Adamand then yeah, just kicks off, fuck me at the end.
ChrisYeah. 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.
ChrisYou think it's not somewhere else.
ChrisAnd yeah.
Chris
ChrisBut 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.
AdamYeah, the majority of them, I think were.
AdamI think the, yeah, there's, oh well there's Winnie, the cleaner, Annette Badland.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisYeah. No, she's great.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYeah, 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".
Adambut she's also, she's just turned up in loads of things over the years.
AdamCuz she was in "Inside Victor Lewis Smith", she was the nurse in that.
LeeAnd, 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.
ChrisOh, really?
LeeYeah, 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".
AdamOh, yeah.
ChrisYeah.
AdamNo, she's.
LeeShe's really, really good.
Adamand, 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.
Adambut 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.
AdamAnd 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.
AdamAnd then,
LeeWell 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.
ChrisYeah.
AdamBut, and and Steve, weirdly enough, I mean, this is a very comedic role for him.
AdamAnd it's like, I, I didn't know you from Alan, Adam, oh sorry, Adam, we didn't know.
ChrisBut it's that contrast of how creepy he is as well.
ChrisBecause he he he plays all, you know, all three. He's he's a creepy headmaster, he's a decent headmaster.
ChrisAnd he's, he's funny. Like it's again.
AdamCuz 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.
LeeI 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.
LeeEspecially when he finds the stack of photos. You're like, well, that's definitely where this is going.
AdamI only noticed it on the on the rewatch of this yesterday.
AdamBut 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.
AdamOh, that was a good one. You know.
AdamBut 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.
AdamWhich 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.
Leethat 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.
ChrisAnd 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.
AdamYeah, when he pulls his arm and it's going somewhere else.
ChrisYeah.
AdamBut, but also the lovely thing as well that even when,
Adamthe headmaster comes in at that point, there's the possibility of it.
ChrisIt might is the.
AdamWell, 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?
AdamAnd then he could, it could have just gone that he would just leave them to it.
AdamAnd that would be the punchline almost.
AdamBut 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.
Leedrawn into the woods.
AdamYeah.
AdamAnd apparently the whole thing. This all start, this all came from because they were trying to find different "Number 9s".
AdamFluorine is, number nine on the periodic table.
AdamSo that led them down the route of like, would it be someone gluing themselves as a protest.
AdamLike environmentalists using it as a protest, like gluing themselves to something because of, they're adding fluorine into it.
AdamAnd then it was a child is doing a protest, so she superglues herself to her teacher.
AdamAnd then they were kind of, they were kind of trying to work it that it would be like the fluorine chain.
AdamOf like, you know, more and more of them get glued together and so on and so forth.
AdamAnd that's where the sort of Greta Thunberg stuff comes in and the environmentalism bits comes in and stuff.
AdamBut apparently the other, the other idea was they said about being blackmailed by a child.
ChrisYeah.
AdamWas the other sort of plot strand that obviously they wove into it.
ChrisYeah.
AdamAnd,
AdamBut yeah, so.
AdamAnd he's.
AdamHe's quite nice.
AdamTo see.
ChrisAnd especially.
ChrisAnd I've forgotten her name.
ChrisWhat's the girl's name?
AdamIt's Carrie, isn't it?
ChrisCarrie.
ChrisWell done.
AdamYeah, no, she, she plays fantastically.
LeeOh yeah.
AdamNo, she's.
AdamShe's really, really good.
Adamthe, Louise Hoper who directed this has done episodes of "Sandman" and "Witcher".
Adamlots of documentaries.
Adambut she also did "Wise Owl" for this series.
Chrisokay.
AdamNow, 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.
AdamAnd they've actually, they turned up on set and didn't realize.
AdamThe production team had put posters of "Wise Owl" translated into Welsh in the wall.
LeeYou 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.
AdamBut they had, obviously the previous teacher was Mr. Hardy, which is a reference to Robin Hardy who directed "The Wicker Man".
Adamand just at one point, this was going to be Tom from "Tom and Jerry".
AdamHave you seen that episode, Chris?
ChrisNo.
AdamIt'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.
ChrisOh, okay. Yeah. Yeah.
AdamAnd they were, yeah, so,
AdamReece'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.
AdamYeah.
LeeAwesome. So, right, so Adam, what are the two episodes we are covering on our next episode?
AdamNext episode, we have "The Harrowing" and appropriately, the Devil of Christmas.
LeeOh.
ChrisExcellent.
LeeOkay.
LeeRight.
LeeTo cover loads again.
ChrisYeah.
LeeExcellent.
LeeRight, so thanks everyone so much for listening, everybody. Go and check out those episodes and enjoy your Christmas. Good night.
AdamGood night.
ChrisGood night.
ChrisNo, no.
AdamNo, no.
