"Bernie Clifton's Dressing Room" is the second episode of the fourth series of the British

black comedy Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and g ...

television programme ''

Inside No. 9 ''Inside No. 9'' is a British black comedy Anthology series, anthology television programme written and created by Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith. It aired on BBC Two from 5 February 2014 to 12 June 2024, running for 9 series and 55 episo ...

''. Written by

Steve Pemberton Steven James Pemberton (born 1 September 1967) is a British actor, comedian, director and writer. He was a writer and actor for BBC's ''The League of Gentlemen'' with Reece Shearsmith, Mark Gatiss and Jeremy Dyson. Pemberton and Shearsmith also ...

and

Reece Shearsmith Reeson Wayne Shearsmith (born 27 August 1969) is a British actor, comedian, writer and magician. He was a member of The League of Gentlemen, with Steve Pemberton, Mark Gatiss and Jeremy Dyson. Jointly with Pemberton, he created, wrote and starr ...

, the episode was directed by

Graeme Harper Graeme Richard Harper (born 11 March 1945) is a British television director. He is best known for his work on the science-fiction series ''Doctor Who'', for which he is the only person to have directed episodes of both the original run (1963� ...

and was first shown on 9 January 2018, on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

. It stars Pemberton, Shearsmith and

Sian Gibson Sian Gibson (née Foulkes) is a Welsh comedy actress and television writer. She has collaborated with Peter Kay, including starring in and co-writing the comedy series ''Peter Kay's Car Share'', for which she won the 2016 BAFTA TV Award for Be ...

. The episode won Pemberton the

BAFTA Award The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs or BAFTA Awards, is an annual film award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best British and international contributions to f ...

for best male performance in a comedy programme. The episode is also performed as part of the 2025 stage show ''Stage/Fright''.

Plot

Tommy (

) and Len (

), a

comedy duo A double act (also known as a comedy duo) is a form of comedy originating in the British music hall tradition, and American vaudeville, in which two comedians perform together as a single act, often highlighting differences in their characters' ...

called "Cheese and Crackers" who split 30 years ago, decide to meet up again in a church hall. They have decided to get together for another round of skits, and practise one of their old skits to warm up. Tommy questions the skit's viability to be performed due to the outdated stereotypes, and is reluctant to continue performing skits, and Len tries to convince Tommy of all the fun they had performing together. Tommy and Len discuss the past for some time, and Tommy brings up that Len owes him 25 quid for "

Bernie Clifton Bernie Clifton (born Bernard M. Quinn, 30 April 1936) is a British comedian and entertainer, known for his work with his orange ostrich puppet costume Oswald the Ostrich. Early life Clifton was born on 30 April 1936 in St Helens, Lancashire, wh ...

's dressing room". An awkward silence ensues. The two continue discussing their pasts and rehearsing old sketches, and Tommy continues complaining of how dated their skits are, while Len wishes to stick to their original material. Len leaves to have a smoke break, and Tommy discovers that Len is homeless. The two continue to argue over the skits' content. The two decide to rehearse their "Brown Bottles" skit, involving Len drinking 7 bottles of beer. Afterwards, Tommy brings up the incident. He reveals that during a performance of "Brown Bottles", Len left the stage, and Tommy found him "choking in his own vomit" in "Bernie Clifton's dressing room", and Tommy had to pay Clifton £25 for the incident (only saying that they had to destroy Clifton's ostrich). Len was an alcoholic, and Tommy, despite his love for the show business, split up with him for fear of Len killing himself with alcohol overdose. Len's daughter, Leanne (

), enters the hall, and Len is suddenly missing from the hall. Leanne hands Tommy the order of service for Len's funeral, and an envelope from Len. Within it is a flyer for "Cheese and Crackers", £25 and a brief letter reading ''"For Bernie Clifton's dressing room. Sorry I messed up x"''. Tommy and "Len" do one last performance together, singing that "If you're going to cry, cry tears of laughter", and Tommy heads off to the funeral to give his speech.

References

External links

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Bernie Clifton's Dressing Room
at

BBC Programmes BBC Online, formerly known as BBCi, is the BBC's online service. It is a large network of websites including such high-profile sites as BBC News and BBC Sport, Sport, the on-demand video and radio services branded BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds, t ...

Bernie Clifton's Dressing Room
at the

British Comedy Guide British Comedy Guide or BCG (formerly the British Sitcom Guide or BSG) is a Great Britain, British website covering British comedy, British comedies. BCG publishes guides to TV and radio situation comedy, sketch shows, comedy dramas, satire, va ...

2018 British television episodes Inside No. 9 episodes {{comedy-tv-episode-stub