"The Trial of Elizabeth Gadge" is the third episode of the second series of the British dark comedy anthology television programme Inside No.

The writers' influences included Witchfinder General, The Crucible, Monty Python and Hammer Horror films, while the names of the witch-finders were a tribute to actor Warren Clarke.

In addition, concurrent with the filming of "The Trial of Elizabeth Gadge", a Drunk History sketch starring Luke Pasqualino—a previous Inside No.

[5][7] The barn was extremely cold during filming; Pemberton joked that, unlike on Titanic, they would not be digitally adding breath in the production process.

To that end, he was complimentary of Yves Barr, a costume designer with whom the writers had worked for a number of years, who did "a fantastic job creating this period on a shoestring".

[13] Warner had previously worked with Pemberton and Shearsmith on The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse, and the writers thought him very well-suited to the role as Sir Andrew Pike.

[14] Shearsmith considered Sheen a very capable actress, and complimented the way she played Gadge as a serious character; Pemberton felt she added "gravitas" to the role.

[17] Although uncredited,[13] Goody Two-Shoes was played by an actress who had appeared in Psychoville, one of Pemberton and Shearsmith's previous productions, as Joanne Dunderdale, an understudy.

[20] Scenes that were cut down in the editing process included the initial meeting between the witchfinders—Warren and Clarke—and Sir Andrew Pike, and a private discussion between Warren and Clarke after the first day of the trial.

Seventy-year-old Elizabeth Gadge (Sheen) has been accused of witchcraft, and Pike is excited that the news has attracted the attention of outsiders.

Throughout proceedings, Warren is accusatory while Clarke is more cautious; Pike, meanwhile, is fascinated both by the lewd acts in which Elizabeth has supposedly engaged and by the witch-finders' torturous implements.

Clarke puts back the hood, and Pike enters, happy that the trial has seen a revival of trade and visitors to the village.

David Chater, writing for The Times, felt that "The Trial of Elizabeth Gadge" was dissimilar from any previous episode of Inside No.

9, but that it was "equally accomplished",[24] while in sister publication The Sunday Times, critics suggested that the change in style showed the writers' versatility.

[25] Neela Debnath, writing for The Independent, called "The Trial of Elizabeth Gadge" a "hilariously dark little half-hour of quintessentially British comedy".

[37] The freelance journalist Dan Owen felt the episode was "entertaining fare, but too predictable and clichéd to prove genuinely memorable", awarding it two out of four stars.

Julia Raeside, writing for The Guardian, said the writers "managed to pull together a loving tribute to [their] cult horror source material with an all-out gag rate that most sitcoms would fail to keep up with", claiming that "they get the look and tone just right and then inject it with the kind of comedy that is perfectly tailored to puncture the fictional world without deflating it".

[36] By contrast, Hawksley claimed that the episode had several "inspired moments", including a "perfectly pitched" joke about selfies, but that the writers had failed to properly exploit the 17th-century setting.

[37] For the comedy critic Bruce Dessau, the episode was "all the more hauntingly funny because it is played pretty straight", but he noted that the character of Sir Andrew Pike allowed "some offbeat humour".

Though Owen felt that the ending "held little surprise",[32] Paddy Shennan, of the Liverpool Echo, said he "loved the fact that, for the third week running, [he] couldn't work out the twist".

[42] Christine Brandel, writing for entertainment website PopMatters, particularly praised the episode's "beautifully done" dialogue, saying that "it feels authentic in its phrasing, even during the more bizarre (and hilarious) court scenes".

[8] Owen, similarly, said "the dialogue was also frequently hilarious, with Shearsmith and Pemberton having a fine ear for the rhythms of Olde English and how best to have characters deadpan their way through some ridiculous sentences.

"[32] Hawksley praised Warner's "effortlessly batty" performance as Sir Andrew Pike, and claimed that Sheen "brought an unsettling complexity" to the title character.