Sunday 31st October

Tonight K and I are off to the BFI to see the preview screening of the Halloween special episode of Psychoville - just four hours before it actually screens on TV but featuring an interview and Q&A with the cast and producers afterward. We had both really enjoyed the first series when it aired last year, capturing as it did the darkest moments of The League of Gentlemen along with the silly jokes and brilliant characters that made it so funny back in the 90s.

We arrive at the BFI just before six having wandered happily from Oxford Circus through Covent Garden and across the bridge to the South Bank - and collect our ticket while the likes of Dawn French (in the show) and Richard Bacon (conducting the interview) wander around us. We take our seats in NFT1 which seems to be completely packed out and the episode is introduced. It takes the form of an hour-long portmanteau story featuring Mr. Jelly, Joy, Mr. Lomax, Tealeaf et al - and while there are lots of good laughs in it, portions are genuinely bloody scary. This is amplified by watching it in the dark and on the big screen - but it has clearly been crafted by students of horror (a genre that I'm not too interested in) and students of comedy.

The interview portion is great fun too - with the likeable Reese Shearsmith slipping accidentally into certain characters and getting angry at internet trolls, among other things.

After the show, we're both very hungry - so we hit upon the idea of calling Jashan (Turnpike Lane's finest curry establishment) and placing a collection order before we get on the tube at Waterloo, meaning it's ready to pick up when we step off the Piccadilly Line 30 minutes later. We tuck into the curry at home, just in time to catch the Psychoville episode starting on TV! And I was right - it's not nearly as scary on telly (or, I suppose, for the second time in one evening).