After eight seasons of impeccable television, Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton are doing their final celebratory lap with this, their ninth and (appropriately enough) final season of Inside No.9. Kicking off with one of the strongest ensemble pieces of the series, my immediate impression is that we are back in safe hands.

It’s a situation all London residents will be familiar with, a homeless man asking for money on the last train home. It brings out the best and worst in society, and helpfully for a 30 minute programme, a person’s reaction often tells you all you need to know about them. Some are dismissive, some do the pantomime of patting their pockets, some actually give money, while some are visibly irritated at the mere question.

The premise is so neat and so apt for Inside No.9 that you wonder why we haven’t had this episode before. Nine strangers are stuck on a train inbetween stations, when one passenger has her purse stolen in a brief blackout. The rest of the episode follows the search for the culprit, as well as revealing each character’s outlooks and prejudices in a politically charged debate.

There’s an episode of The Twilight Zone called Will The Real Martian Please Stand Up? about a group of bus passengers who get stranded in a diner, only when the driver counts heads, he finds there’s one passenger too many. Oh and one of them is an alien. It’s one of the great episodes of the series, and the reason it works so well is the ensemble. Boo To A Goose holds it’s cards very close to it’s chest for most of its runtime, but this is the feeling that it drew out of me, a compelling mystery where at least one character is not who they appear to be. In fact more than one, as the episode masterfully pulls back layers of characterisation to reveal the hidden traits of it;s characters, from the bitter drag queen (Steve Pemberton) to the withdrawn paranoiac (Joel Fry) each character is expertly portrayed. Matthew Kelly’s deranged old man is even reminiscent of the character played by Jack Elam in the Twilight Zone episode.

The entire cast is superb as you might expect by now. Siobhan Finneran is a stand-out as the exasperated wife of the meek Gerald (Shearsmith), himself a former firebrand union man who has withdrawn into a quiet life of amdram theatre outings, much to her frustration. Finneran gives a lovely portrayal of someone determined to do the right thing, whatever polite society may dictate. Philippa Dunne is also great as the mild-mannered, empathetic nurse – effectively playing a variation of her character from Motherland.

Steve Pemberton gives one of his most intricate performances as an unapologetically callous character, someone who has taken all the wrong lessons from the adversity he has faced in the past. He drops hilariously lewd puns left right and centre, and has an unfeeling attitude to those less fortunate than him, but the script takes a pretty considered approach to the character. Pemberton might play the comedy broadly, but he never loses sight of the character. His final diatribe might be repellent, but the characterisation is so specific that he never feels like a caricature.

The same cannot be said for Mark Bonnar as the unhinged physics teacher, determined to root out the thief in the carriage, immediately focusing on the “undesirables” among them. He’s a very broadly sketched public avenger, who is simultaneously looks down on those who don’t conform and views them as a potential threat. He is a terrifying creation, taking it upon himself to mete out justice, and over-awing the other passengers to the point where they can’t stand up to him. Well, aside from Susan Wokoma’s self-righteous character, who for the most part is the only one with the backbone to speak up, and the moral conscience of the episode. Wokoma is instantly likeable, and her final exchange with Pemberton is genuinely crushing.

It’s not a perfect episode – there are a couple of moments where it veers into 12 Angry Men territory, with some lines of dialogue feeling a little forced and overly dramatic. As is the case with other episodes that take a bit of explaining, the ending is a little rushed, with the resolution raising more questions than it answers. But everything has to be heightened in a show like this when you are working within a 30 minute story.

As ever there are moments that pay off on repeat viewings. Without spoiling too much, Shearsmith’s docile, passive character, and Finneran’s frustration with him is the aspect that stands out the most in hindsight, along with the use of familiar announcements from the train driver, rendered incredibly sinister on a rewatch, and Kelly’s ominous recitation of I’ve Got A Little List from The Mikado. The sense of paranoia is helped immeasurably through the synthy score from Christian Henson and the set design, which is full of subtle little touches, such as the Tube posters using such casually authoritarian language as “Don’t mind us, we’re just watching.”

What I loved about this episode is the way it refuses to take a side until very near the end. Of course we empathize with Charlie Cooper‘s diffident homeless man, who is all-too aware of how society views him, but when Bonnar shouts down Wokoma’s character with “This lady is a NURSE! It wasn’t so long ago we were applauding her!” it’s difficult to not see his point about the perceived decline in moral values. Similarly, the dim view taken by the episode of those who meekly let things happen to them is refreshing, and brought to mind a very specific lyric from Into The Woods: “You’re not good, you’re not bad, you’re just nice.” The ending leaves you in little doubt about which side you should be on, but also implies that it’s too late now. That the time to do the right thing has long since passed.

The perfect way to kick off this final run of episodes, Boo To A Goose is an alternately playful and chilling commentary on authoritarianism with a sinister sting in the tail. It has everything you could want from an episode of Inside No.9; Beautifully observed performances, witty wordplay, a chilling twist, even an apparent nod to The League Of Gentlemen (“She had her breast pinched”). Let’s hope the rest of this season is up to this standard!

Inside No. 9 can be watched on iPlayer – and check out my Series Blog here