Inside Number 9 live special caused half of viewers to switch off and the other half to 'crap themselves'

The marvellous minds behind Inside No.9 recently had Lee Mack running for his life after a new quiz show he was presenting went horribly wrong.

Alright, it wasn't really a new quiz show for the BBC's already impressive roster, it was the latest offering from Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton's anthology show.

It's been causing quite a stir among BBC viewers and to find out why you can either read all about it or watch the episode for yourself, and you really ought to anyway because Inside No.9 is quite splendid.

The latest offering, titled '3 by 3', opened up by wrong-footing audiences who'd been told by the show's promotional material to expect an On The Buses tribute starring Robin Askwith titled 'Hold On Tight'.

Indeed, Shearsmith, Pemberton and Askwith had put together a bunch of promotional material for the fake episode before audiences were told they'd instead be getting '3 by 3' mere moments before Inside No.9 was due to start.

BBC

What viewers then got was what initially appeared to be a new quiz show with no connection to Inside No.9, not least because Shearsmith and Pemberton were nowhere to be seen, but there was no small measure of vindication for those who decided to stick with it.

This isn't the first time Inside No.9 has deliberately wrong-footed the audience to catch viewers out, as when they filmed a live special episode titled 'Dead Line' they played all sorts of tricks to terrify the audience.

The episode initially appeared to be plagued by a plethora of technical troubles like the sound dropping out before they stuck on old episode 'A Quiet Night In' to cover.

Meanwhile, we also got footage of Shearsmith and Pemberton in their dressing room tweeting in real time to ask if they were on-air.

Over time things got even weirder as the broadcast itself appeared to be haunted and it left viewers absolutely cacking it.

BBC

According to Den of Geek about one in five viewers completely fell for the technical glitches, switching over altogether, while those who stayed were treated to a wonderful show of horrors.

People who stayed to watch twigged that something was wrong at different times, with many only realising 'when the ghost started banging on the window during A Quiet Night In'.

Another fan said they 'nearly crapped myself at that point', and if you're doing a horror episode then bringing your audience to the cusp of soiling themselves is probably a point in your favour.

Someone else said that was the moment they thought 'oh my god they are actually geniuses' while another declared 'son of a b***h they got us with one of the best twists I've seen'.

One who said they'd predicted that Shearsmith and Pemberton might play the 'show goes wrong but not really' card admitted they 'STILL fell for it until the ghost'.

Inside No.9 is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.