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Love Is A Stranger is the fourth episode of Inside No.9 Series 8.
Vicky (Claire Rushbrook) lives at No.9, and trying online speed dating – which I didn’t know was a thing – first talking to Edgar (Mathew Horne), who like her, also has shoulder length blonde hair, which immediately seems weird…
Then there’s elderly fusspot Norman (Reece Shearsmith), bearded Manny (Steve Pemberton), Lesley (Frances Barber), plus Jai (Asim Chaudhry)… and there’s something different about him.
However, there’s occasional reference to “things you read in the papers” about a particular story I won’t reveal here, but safe to say, that it’s a reason to need to be careful in the dating world, but then always put safety first in such a situation, and if you do go to meet someone, make it a public place.
Oh, and a tip from myself that’s nothing to do with this programme’s plot: DON’T talk about previous dates! Why do people bring that up on ITV’s Dinner Date? You’re on this date! And, obviously, the previous dates didn’t go well because that’s why you’ve moved on to this one!
Anyway, back to this, and along the way, you learn more and more about Vicky’s life, such as how she keeps meaning to visit her brother who moved abroad, but has rather left it a long time.
It took me a while to work out where Love Is A Stranger was going, and it takes a fair time to get into its stride, but then they can’t all be as multi-faceted as Mother’s Ruin and Paraskevidekatriaphobia.
Part of this episode also reminded me of an potential online date I could’ve had, but I’ll wait until this episode has been broadcast to add it (and even then, I’ll put it behind a spoiler header), because it could inadvertently seem like a spoiler.
UPDATE: And here’s that additional bit, being added after the programme has aired…
Initial review posted: May 8th 11:00
Update with post-broadcast piece added May 11th 22:30
Love Is A Stranger is broadcast on BBC2 on Thursday May 11th at 10pm.
Inside No.9 Series 8 is available to pre-order on DVD, ahead of its release on May 29th.
There’s also Inside No. 9: Collector’s Edition: The Scripts: Series 1-3 in Hardcover.
After broadcast, each episode will be on the BBC iPlayer.
Check out reviews of more Inside No.9 episodes.
Also available to buy:
- Series 7 on DVD
- Series 6 on DVD
- Series 5 on DVD
- Series 4 on Blu-ray
- Series 4 on DVD
- Series 3 on Blu-ray
- Series 3 on DVD
- Series 1 on Blu-ray
- Series 2 on Blu-ray
- Series 1 and 2 on DVD together
Episode Score: 6/10
Director: Jesse Quinones
Producer: Kim Crowther
Writers: Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith
Cast:
Vicky: Claire Rushbrook
Edgar: Mathew Horne
Manny: Steve Pemberton
Norman: Reece Shearsmith
Lesley: Frances Barber
Jai: Asim Chaudhry
Polly: Menyee Lai
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.