The Cutprice Guignol

Well, we’ve come upon it at last: Inside No. 9’s first historical episode.

Of which there are only a few in the show’s whole run. A small group it might be, but it’s a prestigious one, including the most recent season’s excellent Curse of the Ninth – and this episode is no exception. Following the titular trial of Elizabeth Gadge (Ruth Sheen), a woman accused of witchcraft in the town of Little Happens somewhen in the 17th century, Mr Warren (Shearsmith) and Mr Clarke (Pemberton) step in as the witchfinders-du-jour to figure out whether she truly is a minion of the devil or not.

This episode is one of the oddest tonal pieces of the show so far – half The Crucible, half bawdy comedy, a sort of Carry On Up The Witch-Hunt (not that I would know anything about getting up in anyone’s witch-hunt, or anyone’s Elizabeth Gadge for that matter, thank you so much), The Trial of Elizabeth Gadge doesn’t really have any business working as well as it does on paper.

But I think what really makes this episode stick is the excellent writing – Shearsmith and Pemberton drew on real-life witch trials in creating this script and these characters, and it really shows. There’s an abject absurdity to the dreadfulness of these proceedings that goes via horror and into some sort of grotesque comedy – all that thigh-rubbingly perverse talk of teats and tongues and arses (especially when delivered via a delightfully-lecherous David Warner) is impossible not to laugh at, in all its nasty, thinly-veiled obviousness.

But the episode doesn’t pull back from the horror and courtroom-drama elements, either, and that’s what really makes it click for me. This is a particularly excellent episode for Steven Pemberton (who, dare I say, was looking very nice in that wig and beard combo), torn between his God-given duty to oust witches and the lurking doubts about the veracity of the claims against Gadge. The inevitability of Gadge’s fate looms large over the story, the methods of torture bleak and genuinely disturbing. It’s an episode that I find really discomforting, knowing the sheer amount of these trials that took place and the torture and murder that was committed in the name of ousting witches (and, if you haven’t read it yet, I would thoroughly recommend the excellent A Delusion of Satan by Frances Hill, which, though focused on America rather than Britain, still explores some of the fascinating societal pieces that fit into place to allow for these “trials” to take place). There’s a good balance here between ribbing the abject absurdity of it while acknowledging the cold brutality that went with it, and I appreciate it.

And, to be honest, I love the twist-in-a-twist ending – at first, it seems as though Clarke has rightly set Warren up to be burned at the stake instead of Gadge, to end his reign of zealous terror, only to reveal that Gadge actually was a minion of the devil all along. It feels true to the Inside No. 9 gleeful meanness, a double-whammy of unpleasantness that lets you think you’ve got to the end of the story before it gives you a final kick in the shins before the credits roll, and I love it.

What do you think of this episode? Where does it rank on the show’s scant historical offerings? Do you think my weird, giant white cat could be a distant relative of Snowflake, the demonic mouse? Let me know in the comments!

If you liked this article and want to see more stuff like it, please check out the rest of my Inside No. 9 reviews. I’d also love it if you would check out my horrible short story collection, and, if you’d like to support my work, please consider supporting me on Patreon!

(header image via BBC)