Inside No. 9

(S1E1 & S1E2 only) Lovely dark-comedy tales from two people who were in something else I gather. Particularly impressive is E2, which is (until the very end) wordless – a tribute to the silent days.

Witness for the Prosecution

Another throwback in this post-WW1 Agatha Christie tale. One thing I’m realising in whodunnits/thrillers is that you can normally tell who it is by the casting – the more famous the actor the more likely they dunnit: see Colin Firth in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Here it clearly wasn’t Toby Jones – he’s the focalised, and ultimately tragic, hero, but [checks name] Andrea Riseborough as Romaine Vole/Heilger would have given me a clue has I known she’s ‘in simply everything’. I sniffed at some point that the bloke Leonard Vole probably did it, particularly his new arrogance when he had the £ and offered some to Toby, but had no idea of the complex sting plot hatched up by the two of them.

How they are related

Two people plotting to rob a rich person is the common thread. The comedy uses slapstick, wordless, comedy; the serious drama uses lots of words, most of them lies.