Soviet space program omitted reports of failure or trouble". Out of fear of admitting any defeat, reports of cosmonauts' missions leaned towards an exaggerated positive spin rather than factual substance. "The USSR was famously described by Winston Churchill as 'a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma' and nothing signified this more than the search for the truth behind its space program during the Cold War. Although the Space Race was literally played out above our heads, it was often obscured by a figurative 'space curtain' that took much effort to see through" says Dominic Phelan in the book "Cold War Space
The Riddle of the Sphinx (Inside No. 9) directed themselves. Close-up shots of the crossword and the blackboard were filmed later, some on the set of "Private View", which introduced potential continuity problems. The episode was filmed after two days' rehearsals. The script was 32 pages in length, resulting in a first cut that was 38 minutes long. The BBC permitted the final version to be a little longer than the half hour typical of "Inside No. 9", but the production team still needed to lose several minutes in the edit. The final run-time for the episode is 31 minutes and 35 seconds. "The Riddle of the Sphinx"