Mystification

[rsc]

We watch PBS's Masterpiece Mystery, and we have noticed that in the closing technical credits (or whatever they're called -- the scrolling credits that follow the cast list) a few letters are displayed in red, and that if you just read the red letters you find that they spell out a name or a word that has some connection to the episode that you just watched.

Last night we watched the second "Zen" episode (the one named "Cabal"), and the red-highlighted letters spelled "LADISLAW". There was no character with anything like such a name in the show, and my only association with that name is the young romantic semi-hero of George Eliot's Middlemarch; but I cannot for the life of me detect any connection between Will Ladislaw or George Eliot with an elaborate murder mystery set in modern Rome.

I am, as they say, mystified.

Comments

[rsc.livejournal.com]

Amusing, yes. Helpful, not really.

[trawnapanda.livejournal.com]

ALICE PLEASANCE LIDDELL

not the answer to your question, but another acrostic. From Lewis Carroll. Can't remember right now if it was from Wonderland or from Looking Glass.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

I think it's the epilogue poem of Wonderland, but I don't have a copy ready at hand to confirm.

Anyway, the relevance in that case is moderately obvious. Also, I'm not sure the red-letter encoding in the Mystery credits is strictly speaking an acrostic, since it's not restricted to initial letters.

Mystery solved!

[rsc.livejournal.com]

It has been revealed to me on Facebook that Rufus Sewell, who plays The title character Aurelio Zen, played Will Ladislaw in a BBC adaptation of Middlemarch.

Re: Mystery solved!

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

So: in-jokes.