Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith, Jenna Coleman, Kadiff Kirwan.

It is not always about who we let into our lives that should be of a concern, it ought to be those we refuse to let go of that would surely be the most troubling; the presence in the room that we cannot somehow live without, such is the fear of letting go that occasionally we find troubled souls and the homes they have made, are nothing more than shrines to ones to whom that refuse to leave.

Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton are arguably never better than when they play off each other’s knack for the disturbing edge of the macabre, when they descend into what others might find time filled with antics and the activity of their long association but which is merely comfortable understanding, and whilst the more memorable episodes of Inside No. 9 are to be found in the larger ensemble, there is the beauty of intimacy to be found in the comradeship of the pair’s work and the interloping disjoin of the smaller company.

Death Be Not Proud is a prime example of the grizzly inspired comedy that comes from the pair when the focus is upon them, a tale that could have come straight out of their successful television series with Mark Gatiss, The League of Gentlemen or even Psychoville. Death Be Not Proud is a story that deals with that most macabre of obsessions, one to which many enjoy the game of deduction and reasoning but to which some find distasteful and peculiar, the serial killer, the darkness in society that goes unnoticed.

The episode though delves further than the comedic macabre to which the pair are renowned, it also opens up the debate of memory, that the shrine to the dead we refuse to let go can resonate within the four walls of our homes, the ghosts of our sins happily terrifying the next owner with images of their evil. It is a long-held belief by many that such echoes are to be found and whilst the episode is played out for the laughs it brings, the question of the malevolence of the afterlife cannot be so easily dismissed.

Death Be Not Proud but should be delighted by the continuation of Inside No. 9‘s appeal, to witness the two writers and actors in their gruesome element; for the pair are never better than when they reflect the more grotesque apparitions of society.

Ian D. Hall