Every Inside No. 9 Episode Ranked From Worst To Best
4. The Riddle Of The Sphinx
Plot: A young woman (Alexandra Roach) breaks into the office of a cryptic crossword-writer (Pemberton) and he shows her how to solve the clues. Things don't stay at that level of normality for long.
Location: A professor's study in Cambridge University.
An elite Inside No. 9 episode in every sense, The Riddle of the Sphinx is a truly genius bit of writing that will horrify and captivate you in equal measure. It is maybe the darkest episode to date but you'll still be eager to watch it again and again.
With its many, many twists, as well as a wickedly smart cryptic crossword that is constantly foreshadowing and referring to the events of the story, this is perhaps the cleverest episode of Inside No. 9 to date but importantly, it never feels smug.
All of this cleverness is in the service of a horrifying, gut-punching tale of revenge that will send shivers down your spine.
It's a brutal story, but the fascinating characters, spot-on performances, powerful dialogue and the brilliant device of using the cryptic crossword to tell much of the story make this a rich, always-compelling tale that's nigh-on impossible to look away from.
A masterwork.