I love the episodes like this. A funny, occasionally quite sweet story that exposes a dark reveal at the last moment.
Felix (Steve Pemberton) arrives at a low rent London hotel that he has booked specifically to spy on his wife, who he believes is cheating on him and is at the hotel opposite with Dmitri, her boss. He books the services of Iris (Sian Clifford) who is a professional lip reader. As the pair spy on the hotel opposite, the manager Eric (Reece Shearsmith) continues to come to the room to check on Felix and responds to occasional noise complaints from fellow guests.
The show is mostly a two hander, for Pemberton and Clifford to show off their acting ability. Both characters have different shades to them that is revealed across the run, but the moments when it's heading towards them becoming romantically involved work as well as any of the rest. Clifford is quite the chameleonic actress and really gets to show it here. Shearsmith is pure comic relief, with a German accent as broad as his Italian one in the first episode. Believing that Felix is the sort of person to bring a sex worker back to his room, he is checking cupboards and using his Skeleton key to access the bathrooms.
The first shift in the power dynamic might have been enough for most shows, but, of course, "Inside No. 9" has another twist in its tail, one which your unlikely to have predicted, but one in which looking back the clues are all there. Perhaps not as funny as other shows they've done, but definitely has some good lines, observations about life in second rate hotels and a particularly strong scene with Iris transcribing half of a phone conversation between Felix and his wife.
The excellent sixth season continues.
Felix (Steve Pemberton) arrives at a low rent London hotel that he has booked specifically to spy on his wife, who he believes is cheating on him and is at the hotel opposite with Dmitri, her boss. He books the services of Iris (Sian Clifford) who is a professional lip reader. As the pair spy on the hotel opposite, the manager Eric (Reece Shearsmith) continues to come to the room to check on Felix and responds to occasional noise complaints from fellow guests.
The show is mostly a two hander, for Pemberton and Clifford to show off their acting ability. Both characters have different shades to them that is revealed across the run, but the moments when it's heading towards them becoming romantically involved work as well as any of the rest. Clifford is quite the chameleonic actress and really gets to show it here. Shearsmith is pure comic relief, with a German accent as broad as his Italian one in the first episode. Believing that Felix is the sort of person to bring a sex worker back to his room, he is checking cupboards and using his Skeleton key to access the bathrooms.
The first shift in the power dynamic might have been enough for most shows, but, of course, "Inside No. 9" has another twist in its tail, one which your unlikely to have predicted, but one in which looking back the clues are all there. Perhaps not as funny as other shows they've done, but definitely has some good lines, observations about life in second rate hotels and a particularly strong scene with Iris transcribing half of a phone conversation between Felix and his wife.
The excellent sixth season continues.