And, yes, there's the ever present giant clock. As discussed here, the attractive and put-upon Florrie is fictional. The bathing suit Weston is wearing is what Houdini would sometimes wear during outdoor underwater escapes (on stage he wore a one piece). The posters on stage are based on real Houdini posters. In this regard, the admittedly fictional Houdini & Doyle restores some welcome reality.

This 'twist' was created by Doug Henning in 1975, but recent Houdini biopics have seized on it as the way to conclude the escape. As I noted in my episode one review, they resist having Houdini appear as his own axe-wielding assistant at the end. So how does this depiction compare to others? Not bad! The cell is pretty good reproduction of Houdini's real cell, notably the stocks, although it is much larger and has a glass back, which Houdini's cell did not have. Derek Tait in Houdini The British Tours shows Houdini performing at the Palace Theatre in Manchester (Oxford Street) in 1913. However, it could not have been '100 years to the day' as some publicly has stated. The production filmed this scene last year at the Palace Theatre in Manchester, where the real Houdini performed the same feat.

Houdini water tank escape