Mr. King

A tribute to folk horror. Mr Curtis (Reece Shearsmith) is a new primary school teacher at a small village school in Wales.

The class are in awe of their previous teacher Mr King who has moved to Australia. The headteacher Mr Edwards (Steve Pemberton) is amiable but just a tad creepy.

Then again so is Mr Curtis who is prone to make inappropriate comments to the children. One that leads to trouble.

Mr Curtis tries to get the class interested in the perils of global warming that the class is seemingly ignorant of.

This is very much inspired by movies such as The Wicker Man and the 1970s American mini series The Dark Secret of Harvest Home.

It does creep you out and gets dark very quickly. I just hoped it had a bit more of a Shearsmith and Pemberton spin.

Brilliant episode. As others have said, highly reminiscent of Wicker Man and somewhat (to me) of Deliverance. A "sophisticated" interloper stumbling upon a tight knit rural community with dark secrets. A key difference here though is that the new teacher did not get his comeuppance for trying to impose his moral code where it wasn't wanted - he was doomed from the outset.

The early passive-aggressive exchanges between new teacher and amiable but enigmatic headmaster had me laughing until my spleen hurt.

Passionate teacher Alan Curtis arrives at a rural Welsh School, he finds he has big shoes to fill, those of his predecessor, Mr King.

Another brilliant, incredible episode, this was the perfect mix of creepy, funny and macabre. Shearsmith and Pemberton delivered a knockout plot and script, hugely influenced by The Wicker Man.

The vibe is chilling and uneasy from the very off, there is far more of a horror vibe here than I was expecting. It actually sent a chill down my spine.

Anette Badland, I'm a huge fan, and she was terrific here, super funny, the kids did an equally great job.

Twisted, macabre, funny, this was brilliant, 10/10.

I'm going to sound contrary with my previous review now, after last weeks episode, but I didn't enjoy this edition quite as much as that one - despite it leaning heavily into the sort of rural horror that they boys have visited quite a bit in their previous endeavours.

Mr Curtis (Reece Shearsmith) is the new primary school teacher at a provincial Welsh school. Though the headteacher Mr Edwards (Steve Pemberton) is friendly, the class are still enamoured with their former teacher, Mr King, who has moved to Australia. Mr Curtis is keen to encourage his class to take an interest in environmental matters, which backfires into an unsavoury incident with one of the pupils. It's not until the class assembly that Mr King discovers that the classes commitment to the environment is, in fact, much more steadfast than he knew.

I suppose, ultimately the problem with this episode was that it felt a little obvious to me. It didn't help that one or two previews referenced a certain movie that, if you talk about it in this context, rather gives the game away. But I think that there's enough in the episode that I'd have got there anyway. The clever aspect of that though is that two of the red herrings of the plot, Mr. Curtis' mental stability and Mr Edwards photography collection, do manage to pay back into the main storyline in the end.

The performances from the adults are good. Annette Badland is also in the episode as Winnie, the school's janitor and she does well with her moments of comedy and there were several funny lines in the episode.

Don't get me wrong, on an off day "Inside Number 9" is better written than most shows on their best and I don't think this was terrible, by any means - but if your hit rate is as good as theirs is then below Par can stand out.

Very obvious homages to The Wickerman here, which while I did get a kick out of it, it wasn't very original.

Another idiot ball plot: why the hell didn't the teacher immediately call the police?

Excellent buildup, with some nice comedy in between. The ending scene has some genuinely frightening cinematography. Could have done without seeing a bunch of small cocks though.