Inside No.9, S2Ep6, Séance Time, TV review: Hide behind your sofas this is horror with a capital AHHH!

We’re now a full 12 episodes into Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith’s very British celebration of the macabre, the unusual and the mysterious, and it would be a crying shame if we don’t see at least six more.

Every minute has been a finely crafted pleasure as they’ve taken on, and cheekily subverted, Hammer Horror, silent film, and a host of theatrical conventions. And even at its most terrifying, it’s incredibly funny.

Séance Time, series two’s closer, had some serious living up to do. Those who saw it will never forget The Harrowing, the final episode of series one, which saw Aimee-Ffion Edwards’ babysitter unwittingly take part in a chilling demonic ritual. The closing moments, as we met ‘Andras’, will live long in the memory and now we have final few minutes of Séance Time to accompany those thoughts when we’re trying to get to sleep at night. Have a cushion at the ready, because this is horror with a capital AAHHH!

It felt like only a matter of time before Pemberton and Shearsmith had fun with a séance and, as we’ve now come to expect, they turn the whole thing on its head half a dozen times. Just as you’re smugly congratulating yourself for working out every twist and turn, they pull it from your grasp. Inside No. 9 is elusive, moreish TV.

The séance in question is being attended by phone shop employee Tina (Sophie McShera), who’s visiting the eerie Madame Talbot (Alison Steadman, hamming it up beautifully) and her sidekick Hives (Shearsmith) in order to communicate with the ‘astral plane’. The real bravery, and genius, is how willing Pemberton and Shearsmith are to undercut the tension with humour. It’s high art with fart jokes. ‘Have you made contact before?’ asks the creepy Hives. ‘What, at the phone shop?’ replies Tina.

In fact it’s Séance Time’s (often hilarious) moments of levity and killer one-liners (Steadman nails each one with aplomb) that help to heighten the tension. It’s during these little pools of calm that you notice the feeling in the pit of your stomach. Something bad is about to happen.

Inevitably the scares come and it’s fair to say that a few viewers will become quite well acquainted with the back of their sofa before the episode is out. I don’t want to reveal too much but there’s a brilliant gag involving blue paint and (very minor spoiler warning, so look away now if you want to know nothing) excellent comic turns from Alice Lowe and Cariad Lloyd.

It seems the Beeb weren’t willing to give Pemberton and Shearsmith’s Psychoville a third series. Let’s hope Inside No. 9 doesn’t meet the same fate.