If you loved The League of Gentlemen you will love Psychoville - another great show by Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith.

I thought tonight's episode of Inside No.9 was excellent.

Er ... I have a very strong feeling that the vanishing egg-splat was intentional. It was to show that a lot of what she was seeing wasn't actually happening. There were dozens of "continuity errors" all over the shop if you watch closely enough. For example, in the party scene, there's a gift on the sofa that changes position without anyone touching it. The "eggy" one was just the most "unsubtle subtle" one.

You really think writers as experienced as Pemberton and Shearsmith who have crafted some very meticulous work in their time would not have noticed something so obvious? Or the people responsible for splicing the two scenes together post-production?

Anyhow, brilliant episode. I was heartbroken at the end. Like others, I thought it would be a "50 first dates" thing, but that of course did not explain why her dad had come back from the dead.

Tea leaf!

Just finished watching this having recorded it yesterday.

Myself and OH in bits - absolutely brilliant. Don't think I'm going to find it easy to forget.

Think I might need to watch something a bit lighter before trying to get to sleep tonight.

Yeah the eggs weren't really there. Like her Dad on the boys first day at school, or the valentine card from her first boyfriend none of it was 'real' it was all created by her memory and as such was fragmented and mixed up by her dying mind.

Some things were more obvious than others, I decided that the valentine card didn't really happen at that time anyway, it was just Christine's way of remembering him, remembering her younger life as was the burn on her sons hand on bonfire night.

However, did she really catch her husband in an affair? I wasn't sure but decided that she probably did at some stage but not at her birthday party. I also don't think that they reconciled, that 'I love you' was a way to segue into the final scene where he was there, with her flatmate (who I doubt she saw again) and also her Dad again (who was dead by that stage).

Oh yes I've seen all of Psychoville too, I just forgot to mention it previously. Loved that too. Reece and Steve can do no wrong in my eyes, they are fantastic. I would loved to have seen more Jeremy and the Silent Singer in Psychoville, personally.

Several people are saying for the last two episodes that the ideas have been done several times before.
But can anybody post the references they are talking about?

Very vaguely, Jacobs Ladder springs to mind (?), sure there are others with a similar theme of us experiencing a persons mind at time of coma / death...(Life On Mars is another) but not done so shortly and sweetly.

Really was excellent, just watched it again tonight, fab ending.

Really was excellent, just watched it again tonight, fab ending.[/quote]

Probably the best one across both series' (so far), even though it wasn't particularly funny. Sheridan Smith is so brilliant! Reece and Steve...what else can be said? Not sure if there is a BAFTA category for single episodes, but I would definitely nominate this!

I too thought it was going to be revealed she had Alzheimer's. In fact, when they were all sitting at the table I was convinced that was what was happening. Though how they did end it was much better, much more of a final short story solution. Really moving and perfect.

It's been a long time since a TV programme made me cry. That was brilliantly constructed, acted and delivered - not comic at all, but superb stuff

Yeah, of course, Jacob's Ladder. I love that film - everything is a confusing mess that makes no sense, then the last three minutes brings everything together perfectly. Then Macauley Culkin leads Tim Robbins up those stairs ...

Although I didn't see it, wasn't there an episode of "Cucumber, Banana, Tofu" recently where one of the character dies and everything in the episode is his dying thoughts?

And there must be quite a few 'all a dream' dramas - a device that we were warned against using in stories at - oh yes, primary school. I have found some other real world people who thought this was crap though.

Yes, I've watched this several times now just to appreciate the attention to detail throughout - from the ambulance sirens in the very first second to the breaking smile in the last. The dates that are mentioned are all consistent with each gap being 13 months and I doubt that's just chance, given that Fung mentions it. Jack and Christine's birthdates are on the passports, so the timeline looks like this if my arithmetic is correct (the bold months are defined by the script, the others fit)

Jan 03 Arriving at flat after New Year's Eve party; Christine 23Y6M
Feb 04 Valentine's Day; Christine 24Y7M
Mar 05 Mothering Sunday; Christine 25Y8M
Apr 06 Moving in together - eggs; Christine 26Y9M
May 07 Bank holiday - Married. assemble cot; Christine 27Y10M
(Not shown: Jack born 12 Aug 07)
Jun 08 Voice on baby alarm; Jack 0Y10M Christine 28Y11M
Jul 09 Christine's 30th birthday on the 21st; Jack 1Y11M
Aug 10 Father has died just before holiday; Jack 3Y Christine 31Y1M
Sep 11 Jack's first day at school reception (aged 4Y1M). They have split; Christine 32Y2M
Oct 12 Halloween; Jack 5Y2M Christine 33Y3M
Nov 13 Bonfire night "I love you" phone call; Jack 6Y3M Christine 34Y4M
Dec 14 Christmas dinner. They have been together for just over a year; Jack 7Y4M Christine 35Y5M

I can't get this where I live

Yes Jacob's Ladder is what sprang to mind for me, but it was the only one I could think of.
Due to the way aspects in the real world which were happening around her found the way into her subconscious. i.e. The eggs, her boyfriend dressed as a fireman from the fancy dress party they had been to, The Reece Shearsmith character, what was especially good about that one was that it was revealed that the Reece Shearsmith character taking the baby from the cot was a reflection of the real life version of him taking the baby out of the car.

Personally I wasn't thinking Alzheimers, I was thinking that the Reece Shearsmith character was the ghost of her boyfriend come back to haunt her because she was responsible for his death in some way. For example dumping him and him committing suicide. That's where I thought it was going.

But has anybody got any more film or TV references? People say it has been done several times before, but I'd really like to know these references so that I can seek them out and watch them.

The actor that played the dad was in torchwood children of earth, was brilliant in that of course.

I watched this ep of inside no 9 last night, was excellent, I had a tear at the end when I realised what was happening..I was too engrossed to spot any film references, I will watch it again of course..it was a superb bit of television.

The first two episodes of this series have been very good. Last week's was very funny and only really went to a dark place right at the end with the twist. This week was set up really well to give you a sense of something being wrong throughout and I didn't spot it until Christine did. Perhaps slightly sentimental with the goodbye bit at the end but not really a criticism.

As for the theme having been worked before, well I'm sure it has. Pemberton and Shearsmith are big fans of these kind of stories (as is their former League partner Mark Gattiss) and it's as much a homage to great thriller TV of the past from Alfred Hitchcock Presents to The Twilight Zone and beyond (Armchair Thriller, Tales of the Unexpected etc.) as it is an original series idea in its own right.

Inside No.9 is up there with Detectorists as my favourite half hour slices of BBC drama recently.

Just watched it again there, it really was fantastic.
I picked up on a lot more things the second time round. For example, when she turns the kitchen light on after the eggs have been thrown, it flickers and bathes the kitchen in flashing blue light, just like the police cars/ambulances would have been doing at the crash scene.

It really was very cleverly done.

I think Sheridan Smith is one of the best actors on TV at the moment.

Several episodes from The Twilight Zone deal with this in some sort of way (Death Ship, Ring-A-Ding Girl, The Hitch-Hiker; with the latter coming closest in terms of plot, while the second one imho comes closest in terms of sadness).

And certain episodes of sc-fi/drama series Lost also showed what happened when people basically had the change to relive through key past events again (for instance The Constant and Flashes before your eyes).

I only caught it because I spotted the review in The Times on Friday morning and thought " ooh I'll get that back on CatchUP " - so glad I didn't actually read the whole piece as it probably gave away the "twist".

Watched it three times now and picked up on lots of the nuances. And I really had to pay attention to hear the sirens at the very beginning that ukcarter has mentioned.

Best half hour I have seen on TV in a long time.

I love how pivotal Reece's brief character actually became once it became apparent why he was there (the fact he was billed in "stranger" in the credits), and how his few words now all make sense ("sorry" when she was in the crash and "I've got him" when he'd got hold of the boy etc. It escapes me what was said over the baby monitor, but this aspect alone is simply brilliant and I'd love to get inside Reece and Steve's minds for a few hours. They are amazing.

Thanks. I shall seek them out. You've just reminded me of another Twilight Zone episode. If my memory serves me well a man finds himself in an abandoned town and is trying to work out who he is and where he is. It turns out that it's all in his mind.It transpired that he is a pilot and a military organisation (or something like NASA) are conducting a psychological experiment on him to test his resilience to being alone in space. Or something like that..

the baby monitor said somthing like " come on, lets get you out of here "