GAME OF THE NAME: THE CASE OF THE OTTERBOURNE IN-JOKE

Here there be spoilers.  Fair warning.....

Every so often 'Murder, She Wrote' had some clever in-jokes.  At the time of this writing I'm seeing an episode for the first time - "Death 'n' Denial" - which takes place in Cairo.  And this one had a touch of Agatha Christie which circled back to Angela Lansbury.

There is a character named Sally Otterburn, played by Finn Carter.  And in the movie "Death On The Nile", Angela Lansbury portrayed Mrs. Salome Otterbourne.  Sally Otterburn, meet Salome Otterbourne.

Luckily for the dynamics of Toobworld, this in-joke was delivered with a feather touch without fanfare.  There is no connection between the two as they each take place in separate fictional universes.  “Death ‘n’ Denial” happened in Earth Prime-Time, the main Toobworld, while “Death On The Nile” occurred in an alternate world, one of the Borderlands in which movies and TV shows share the same dimensional plane.  

This is because Peter Ustinov as Hercule Poirot appeared in TV movies as well as theatrical films based on the books of Dame Agatha Christie.

We couldn’t very well allow Ustinov’s version of the Belgian detective with the “leetle grey cells” into the main Toobworld.  Hercule Poirot is firmly entrenched with the portrayal by David Suchet over twenty years. And his Poirot solved the televersion of that case as seen in 2004.  (In that version, the wonderful Frances de la Tour assayed Mrs. Otterbourne.)

And so we can only accept that in-joke as it was meant to be – a little bit o’ fun for the audience of the Trueniverse as it was meant to be, if they were eagle-eyed enough to spot it.

One last thought - I found it interesting that Sally Otterburn and Salome Otterbourne played opposite ends of the spectrum.......

BCnU!