The Cutprice Guignol

Well, thank God we had a pleasant one last week, because Diddle Diddle Dumpling is here to wreck your day, week, year, and potentially life. Let’s get into it!

This episode, for me, is one of the best single pieces of drama the show has ever done – hell, it might even top out that list. It’s a brutal, brilliant episode that manages to take this absurd premise and wring out every drop of emotion from it possible to tell this impactful story about grief, loss, and obsession – when David (Reece Shearsmith) finds a single man’s shoe outside his house on a run, he becomes consumed by trying to figure out who it belonged to, much to the concern of his wife Louise (played by Keeley Hawes, and so named, I can only assume, so I can hear Reece Shearsmith saying my name personally).

I’ve written before about the precision in Inside No. 9’s storytelling, the writing and direction especially, but I truly don’t think there’s an episode that’s a better example of it than this one. There is not a single detail missed here, not a single opportunity dropped to expand on the themes and the character relationships – divided pairs of various objects (from chairs to vases) appear in almost every frame, the awkward layout of the house and strange blocking creates space between David and Louise that expands over the course of the episode, each gesture, each line of dialogue, each shot designed to fill out this world a little more. Watching this from a more critical perspective, it’s hard not to admire the extraordinary effort that went into this episode and this story, and seeing it pay off is supremely satisfying.

And precision might seem antithetical to really letting the emotion loose, but Diddle Diddle Dumpling (God, I can’t believe I have to take seriously an episode with such a preposterously silly title – my reputation as a serious reviewer will be in tatters after this, I tell you) uses that precision as a contrast to the way the emotional story plays out. I don’t think Shearsmith has ever been better than he is here, as a man trying to navigate the loss of one of his children six years previously; it’s a performance that straddles the comical absurdity of magical thinking (his little face peeping up over the top of the tread mark photographs never fails to make me laugh) and the raw pain that underpins it. What he shares with Hawes, and what he doesn’t share with his surviving daughter to protect her, comes through in every aspect of the performance – and, with someone as brilliant as Hawes to bounce off of, it lands even more of a gut-punch. It’s underplayed beautifully and it hits all the harder as a result – the temptation to go big with emotions as consuming as these must have been huge, but it’s all the more effective without it.

This is also, without a doubt, one of the episode’s of the show that most rewards a rewatch. That uneasy sense of uncertainty that soaks into this story before you know what’s actually going on is intriguing the first time around, but a second time, knowing what underpins all of this, it’s downright brilliant. It’s a profoundly sad episode, and understanding the logic behind David’s actions imbues it with even more meaning and weight. The only thing I’d change is the last-minute murder twist at the end – I actually think the episode works better without it, as just a meditation on grief and loss, but I understand why it’s there, as part of the show’s calling card.

Diddle Diddle Dumpling is a nigh-on perfect episode of Inside No. 9, an absolute treat to rewatch and a spectacular example of the exquisitely tight storytelling that fills out this fantastic anthology series. I’d love to hear what you make of it in the comments – let’s diddle our dumplings together, shall we?

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 Dan’s Media Digest)