Two Great British Series that Veer Toward the Fantastic

Inside No. 9 might be the best show you’ve never seen. BBC keeps it going despite its small audience, perhaps because of critical acclaim or pressure from devoted viewers who love that this show does something new and does it brilliantly. 

Created by Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, each 30-minute episode tells a different story in a different setting, ranging from a 17th-century witch trial to an office comedy told through CCTV footage. 

Almost all feature a bizarre twist at the end (which you will never guess). Often the twist is dark, as in “The Bill,” where an argument about who will pay the dinner check escalates into something homicidal — or does it?  

Sometimes it may move you to tears as in “The 12 Days of Christine.”  

And occasionally you’ll be laughing out loud, as in “Zanzibar,” a farce told entirely in iambic pentameter. The only thing the episodes share is a link in some way to the number 9.

Here are two remarkable things: Every episode is good, some better than others of course, but not a dud in the many I’ve seen. 

And although you know you’re being set up for a twist, the first 25 minutes are always compelling and well acted. 

Take “Bernie Clifton’s Dressing Room,” which stars Pemberton and Shearsmith playing two comedians reunited after 30 years and rehearsing for one final show. 

Their lives have changed in drastically different ways, and tension grows as they try out their dated, wacky routines. The ending is both surprising and inevitable, and it is heartbreaking. 

You need to do some digging to find “No. 9,” but it’s worth the effort. There are six short series. Three are on Hulu; all are rentable on Amazon or free on Britbox, which is available through Amazon.

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Black Mirror is sometimes compared to “No. 9,” but it more closely resembles “The Twilight Zone.” 

Created by Charlie Brooker for Channel 4 in the U.K., it was later produced by Netflix. The 22 stand-alone episodes vary greatly, but most veer toward that branch of science fiction called speculative fiction, near-future stories about technology out of control. 

In “Nosedive,” eye implants and mobile devices enable people to rate interactions with others from one to five stars; the ratings affect your wealth and social status. The story centers on Lacie Pound, (Bryce Dallas Howard), whose rating has plateaued at 4.2. Her desperate efforts to improve it result in a darkly funny ending.

“San Junipero” is a love story set in a beach resort that turns out to be an alternative reality in which the deceased can live, inhabiting their younger bodies. One of the most popular episodes, it won a 2017 Emmy for Best Television Movie.

“The National Anthem” is a black comedy in which Princess Susannah, a beloved member of the royal family, is kidnapped and will be released only if the British Prime Minister has sex with a pig on live TV. Will he compIy?  The Home Secretary says yes, his wife says no, a tough decision for a head of state.  Go to Netflix, Episode 1, Series 1.

Ed Ferman is the former editor and publisher of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and has been an editor at the Cornwall Chronicle for many years. He has lived in Cornwall since 1969.