Empty Orchestra start singing. The music was pumped up and we had a mini party, with mad dancing – that was a memorable scene to film." The filming introduced a number of technical challenges, with the producer Adam Tandy explaining that the simultaneous singing and conversing made production particularly difficult: "To record it all 'clean' and have options in the edit, that was technically hard on everybody." Typically, karaoke scenes in television will see characters sing only the opening lines, but because of the format of "Inside No. 9", the characters in "Empty Orchestra" sing the whole song. Each character sang a
Empty Orchestra presence of Fran. It pre-empts the result of their relationship with the line "we will both be sorry"; this is unsung, but nonetheless emphasised. The song also speaks to the relationship between Greg and Roger, with Greg singing "don't you want me?" when he fears that he will be fired, and tells of Greg's character with lines including "Don't forget it's me who put you where you are now // And I can put you back there too". "Empty Orchestra" had a mixed reception from television critics, being awarded four out of five by Mark Ward of the "Daily Express",