Inside ‘Inside No. 9’: How a dark British comedy punked an entire nation

nypost.com:

created by Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, thought they were going to watch a heavily advertised episode called “Hold On Tight,” set aboard a London bus with guest star Robin Askwith.They were informed, about 15 minutes before airtime, that “Hold on Tight” was pulled and replaced by “3X3,” a new BBC game show hosted by veteran presenter Lee Mack.As the “3X3” episode rolled along, complete with the requisite banter, corny jokes, flashing neon and three teams of nine awkward contestants answering trivia questions, it took a dark turn — ending with an unflinching contestant, Catherine, locking her mother, Margaret, in a soundproof booth and making her head explode in bloody carnage.As the lifeless body falls to the ground, the crew screams in horror, and the episode, streaming Aug.

25 on BritBox, ends abruptly.“When Reece and Steve delivered the script for ‘3X3,’ it was clear it was only going to work if it didn’t have either of them [in the cast],” said “Inside No.

9” executive producer Adam Tandy, who devised the fake game show ruse. “Somehow, we found a way of getting our audience to something that wasn’t billed as an ‘Inside No.

9’ episode — it had to feel like it was a real episode of something else.“We really wanted it to be hidden in plain sight,” he said. “I said … ‘We’ll just have to come up with a cover story.’ The episode that everyone wanted to see is set about a No.