Inside No 9 Bernie Clifton's Dressing Room S4 ep 2 Review

I'll tell my inside number 9 series 4 episode 2 Burnie Clifton's dressing room this is a excellent piece of British TV writing I'm not going to say comedy writing because whilst it's funny it's also incredibly dramatic and well conceived to the point where it's just good TV you don't forget needs to be slotted into a category it surrounds a duo from an 80s comedy cabaret act crackers and cheese or cheese and crackers there's a little argument over which wearing names should be in the episode and after a 30-year split they've come back together in a rehearsal space in a village hall we all their props and gags around them in order to put on a show of some sort now I'm not gonna say any more about the plot itself but I want to talk about what the show concerns and what it puts across it's a sort of bittersweet ode to a style of comedy and performance there in the last 20 or so years has fallen out of favor because of people either sneering at it or not thinking it's clever or astute enough and what this episode goes to show is it in order to perform that kind of act properly you have to practice put a lot of effort into it and it takes a lot of care and attention they're called comedy routines because you do them over and over again and you grind them down to drip every ounce of comedy and timing out of any given situation if you know anything about history of comedy and acts and things like that you'll know that any of those famous stage performers that have sort of improvisational moments or little asides to the stage or the camera they were not just by chance they were rehearsed and they were put into their acts on purpose because they increased the comedy value of that act and even in this as a little discuss things like that and whether they should or shouldn't be mug into the audience there's discussion on or reference to rad voice a discussion on there's reference to them taking steps to even name the biskits you don't say Biscay you say Garibaldi that's reference to a comedy convention that says details are funnier than being generic and it's true I suppose I should say that my family has a bit of a background in performance and comedy and cabaret type acts so I've been lucky enough as I grew up during the time period where this act is supposed to be from to witness both sides of the curtain and one of the things they nail really well through either having done it themselves or researched it is that they get the people who tend to do that kind of level of performance and put that level of effort in aren't happy all the time bastards really and it reminds me a lot of certain family members of mine and this just goes to balance the two viewpoints you've got one character he sort of represents the modern take on things where everything has to be sort of sharp and witty and often you know and a bit more sneery whereas you've got the other character who enjoys the more silly comic act that you have to remember for more than one decade for many many years the entire nations used to laugh at and enjoy and still laugh at and enjoy people will still watch the kind of acts that they do little segments off in this episode and get a massive amount of enjoyment out of it and one of the things people forget that they sort of subtly and uncertainly show in this episode is the level of craftsmanship and effort that people have to put into these acts there's a section where they have to balance something in their act and they don't necessarily refer to the fact that they're balanced in something but you see them do it and when you see them rehearsing it you have to remember that it's all a skill and a practiced thing that if it wasn't done properly will look terrible including timing and things like that and this really gets that across and to go along with that you can remember this is written by Rhys shear Smith and Steve Pemberton and it just goes sure level of skill this wasn't put together by a big team of writers or not I'm aware of whether they care about the credits I don't know but it's um it's just well executed well conceived and incredibly enjoyable TV and not every episode of insight number nine hits the mark and that's fine because it's gems like this that really make it worthwhile watching and it makes it worth watching more than once particularly you've got the luxury of having it for free on the iPlayer if you're in the UK definitely recommend watching it [Music]

Channel: Simon Thomas

Views: 5,557

Rating: 4.9452057 out of 5

Keywords: inside no 9, review, discussion, opinion, bbc, pemberton, shearsmith, league of gentlemen, comedy, horror, double act, bernie cliftons dressing room, film, movie, netflix, iplayer, streaming, tv, t.v.

Id: 3x8N8_lhJn8

Length: 5min 28sec (328 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 10 2018