20 Best TV Episodes Of 2018

11. Once Removed - Inside No. 9

Inside No 9 Once Removed
BBC

Inside No. 9 doesn't seem to have found an audience (or even a network) outside of the United Kingdom, and even here it struggles to get too many viewers. It's a shame, because not only is it some of the best stuff League of Gentlemen's Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton have created, but because the amount of craft that goes into each episode is astonishing.

Series 4 took things to a new level and was full of contenders for 'the best', but Once Removed is where the darkness of the show collides with their love of plot twists and playing around with structure.

A deconstruction of a mystery puzzle, the episode - which focuses on a couple moving house, the 32nd most stressful life experience according to the Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale - starts with a complete jigsaw and then fills you in on the pieces while simultaneously removing them. Deliciously dark and fiendishly clever, it's an episode that you immediately want to rewatch once you've got to the end, which just so happens to be the beginning.

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Contributor
Contributor

NCTJ-qualified journalist. Most definitely not a racing driver. Drink too much tea; eat too much peanut butter; watch too much TV. Sadly only the latter paying off so far. A mix of wise-old man in a young man's body with a child-like wonder about him and a great otherworldly sensibility.