*Latest in my Mahler series!*

Ever since the very first episode in 2014, the BBC TV comic-noir series Inside No.9 (website; wiki) has been consistently brilliant. Written by and starring Steve Pemberton and Reece Sheersmith, it features cameos from a succession of fine actors. The plot twists are ingenious, the mood sinister and enigmatic.

The penultimate episode of the ninth (and final!) series (watch here) takes its title from the Curse of the Ninth, attributed to Mahler’s fruitless efforts to trick fate. Typically macabre, it’s “an Edwardian chiller in which a talented piano-tuner is forced to confront the power of a centuries-old curse by the owners and servants of a large country house.” As the drama unfolds, we hear well-chosen excerpts from the 1st movement of Mahler 9.

The wiki article on the curse gives instances of composers unable to complete their 10th symphony—but also lists counterexamples of others who did manage to do so. So there.

* * *

A random selection of (nine!) other stimulating episodes from Inside No.9:

• A quiet night in—largely silent!
• The 12 days of Christine, with Sheridan Smith
• The bill—someone must pay…
• Dead line, a disconcerting live Halloween special
• Death be not proud
• Lip service
• Last night of the Proms, a most sinister take
• Merrily, merrily, with Diane Morgan!
• Mr King.

The very final episode Plodding on is ingenious…