Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton, Mark Gatiss, Diane Moran, Patrice Naiambana.

A reunion, of sorts, and one that perhaps many thought might never occur, but it should never have been in doubt that Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton, and Mark Gatiss, the delightful acting team behind The League Of Gentlemen, would one day be seen together in the same scenes, and providing a deeply satisfying look at the darker side of life.

Inside No. 9 has become an institution, without having to accept the rules of such a customary, and sometimes inflammatory, belief. The sheer scope of work created under the series banner is rich, colourful, it is art and flamboyant, it is reserved, and it touches upon many a truth.

Life is not plain sailing, and for Laurance, the truth is more about reconnecting, both with two old university friends, and with the past, and in the first tale of the returning series, Merrily, Merrily the idea of long-term loss is explored, is opened up, and revealed to be closer to the idea of old European mythologies than are current sensibilities perhaps allow.

Whilst the ever-engaging Diane Morgan is comfortably utilised in the episode, there can be no doubt that it is to the three men in the paddle boat that catches the attention of the long-term fan. The initial greeting between the three characters is a start, far more practised as a large hug of friendship between three old friends separated by circumstance and differing ambitions, a beautiful set up mirroring the actors themselves, and indeed the joy on the face of Mark Gatiss as his character Callum shook the hands of old friends was worth the half hour invested all by itself.

Merrily, Merrily, life is anything but a dream, and for anyone who has found themselves cut adrift of old friendships, whose only connection in later life is what they endured and overcame in university and school, those ties are the shakiest of them all. In today’s fast-moving world to not know that a partner or loved one of someone has passed away, is perhaps to be expected, and it is that grief, that reunion, that makes Merrily, Merrily an insightful, poignant, and superb watch.

Grief is a terrible, but absolutely human emotion; and it is in grief, in the denial of time lost, that Merrily, Merrily excels.

A returning trio, a fan’s delight. Inside No. 9 continues to push the genre onwards.

Ian D. Hall