US Edition 
Inside No 9, series 2, episode 3, BBC Two, review: 'occasionally funny'
The third episode of series two fell some way short of what we have come to expect from Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith
The opening two episodes of the second series of Inside No 9 (BBC Two), Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith’s (The League of Gentlemen; Psychoville) bizarre anthology series, have been rightly praised for combining midnight-black comedy and fine acting with occasional shavings of poignancy. Disappointingly, despite a starry cast and a delightful twist and counter-twist, the third instalment was nothing like as effective.
The Trial of Elizabeth Gadge surveyed a barbaric 17th-century witch trial in the village of Little Happens and asked what it really means to be guilty of a crime. Are guilt and the assumption of guilt one and the same thing? And, most presciently in the post-Guantanamo era, how useful is evidence to a prosecutor intent on finding the accused guilty?
Following mutterings that a sorceress is in their midst, Sir Andrew Pike (David Warner) summons renowned witch-finders Mr Clarke (Pemberton) and Mr Warren (Shearsmith) to his village. In front of a bustling congregation, baying for blood, the pair verbally pokes and physically prods Elizabeth Gadge (Ruth Sheen) in order to try and elicit a confession from the old “hag”.
There was the occasional inspired moment – an amusing riff on the modern fascination with selfies was perfectly pitched – but the overall sense was that Pemberton and Shearsmith were suffering a mid-series lull. Too often the punchlines were predictable (not a word usually associated with these writers) and the opportunity to play with the 17th-century setting was wasted. Grubby peasants, pitchforks and a wooden hut were about as imaginative as things got.
Warner, however, was effortlessly batty as Sir Andrew Pike, a dim homosexual aristocrat: “Is it just the devil who has his a--- kissed or can anyone be forced to endure it?” And Sheen brought an unsettling complexity to the role of Elizabeth Gadge – bewildered peasant one minute; something much darker the next. Both, though, were working from uncharacteristically slim material.
This occasionally funny half hour of television fell some way short of what we have come to expect from Pemberton and Shearsmith.