The Riddle of the Sphinx (Inside No. 9) was characterised by Pemberton as a thriller in the style of Anthony Shaffer's 1970 play "Sleuth", while Shearsmith identified the episode as particularly theatrical, in the style of "Sleuth" and Ira Levin's 1978 play "Deathtrap". BBC executives, according to Shearsmith, saw the episode as a cross between "Sleuth" and Willy Russell's 1980 play "Educating Rita" that read as if it had been authored by psychopaths. The executive producer Jon Plowman suggested that the first half of the episode plays out like a radio play. The word-play and tea-drinking in this part of the episode are, in the writers' opinion, very
Educating Rita (film) "The Wild Swans at Coole". This is instead an example of consonance, the repetition of consonant sounds. However, in a scene just before Rita meets Dr. Bryant, some students mockingly observe, "He doesn't even know what assonance means!", confirming that it is Dr. Bryant's mistake, not the film's. In an ensuing discussion between Dr. Bryant and Rita, he asks her whether she understands assonance. Rita replies, "Yeah, it means you've got the rhyme wrong." The film focuses on Rita's unhappiness with her life in her blue-collar, working-class environment, including her husband who wants Rita to cease her educational pursuits and