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 found the setting and constant noise a distraction. The writing and production, however, were praised, while the cast were commended both for their performances and their willingness to embrace the episode's concept. The third series of "Inside No. 9" was announced in October 2015, and was heavily publicised beginning in January 2016, at which time Sarah Hadland, Javone Prince and Tamzin Outhwaite were named as guest stars in the series. "Empty Orchestra" was the fourth episode of the series, and the third of a run of five episodes beginning February 2017—the series's first episode being the December 2016 Christmas special