I haven't been reviewing this series of Inside No 9 for a number of reasons. Firstly it's been so hard to write about it without spoilers that ruin the fun for those who read reviews before watching it on catch-up. But secondly I didn't want to committ to writing up each episode of the final series only to say that I was disappointed by them. But so far there have been no duds and the fourth episode CTRL ALT ESC was probably the best of this run yet.

 

The setting was an escape room called “The Killer’s Lair,” with a family having to find their way out and avoid serial killer Dr Death along the way. Steve Pemberton played dad Jason, mum Lynne and the daughters Millie and Amy were played by Katherine Kelly, Kalli Tant and Maddie Evans. Reece Shearsmith is tetchy Escape Room guide Doug.

 

Within minutes a normal day out soon turned into something much creepier and Jason was padlocked by Doug and had to escape from his padlock before he could even move and join his family who quickly followed the clues and headed into a tunnel behind a filing cabinet. I'm guessing Pemberton was quite involved in the writing of this. He's good at crossword clues (remember Riddle of the Sphinx?) and there were lots of clues in this to work out numbers to crack codes and combinations.

 

As a viewer of Inside No 9 - well, as me – one's brain runs on two tracks. Enjoying the drama but also trying to second guess what's about to happen. At one point I thought maybe gender was going to come into play. The name Georgina was mentioned. Was someone called George going to turn out to be Georgina now and also a real life serial killer? Was Jason a surgeon who had performed a botched operation and somebody wanted revenge? 

 

Needless to say I was completely wrong, though – without giving too much away – a hospital scene did explain what was actually going on. Some people have compared this to the classic episode 12 Days Of Christine. For me it also had echoes of the Edgar Allen Poe story Premature Burial, which was filmed by the recently deceased Roger Corman.

 

I think as a general rule Inside no 9's end badly. I think this one actually ended happily. Or did it...