Inside No. 9: Tom & Gerri

"Tom & Gerri" is the third episode of British dark comedy anthology series Inside No. 9. It premiered on BBC2 on 19 February 2014. The episode was based on a play that Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith had written while living together prior to the development of their series The League of Gentlemen. While the play had originally been around two hours in length, the episode was only half an hour. "Tom & Gerri" follows a difficult period in the life of Tom (Shearsmith), a primary school teacher and aspiring writer, and his partner Gerri (Gemma Arterton), a struggling actress, after Tom invites the homeless Migg (Pemberton) into his home. Conleth Hill stars as Stevie, a man worried about the mental health of his friend Tom. The entire episode takes place inside Tom's flat. Reviewers generally agreed that "Tom & Gerri" was significantly darker but less funny than previous episodes of Inside No. 9. Nonetheless, the response to the episode as a whole was very positive. Critics disagreed about the presentation of Tom's mental illness in the episode, with one journalist suggesting that the episode's ending "set back public awareness of mental health at least half an hour", but another saying that the story presented "a fine – if cartoonish – take on mental illness".