Simon Russell Beale credited as playing...
Ferdinand Lyle
- [Vanessa Ives enters Ferdinand Lyle's office when seeing his glass case of beetles]
- Vanessa Ives: What are these?
- Ferdinand Lyle: Oh, Carrion beetles. We employ them when the usual solvents are deemed too abrasive. They eat the flesh, don't you know. Sorry, my dear, it's a bit ghoulish to the lay-person.
- Vanessa Ives: Very exotic. Where do they come from?
- Ferdinand Lyle: Actually, Waveney, in Suffolk.
- Vanessa Ives: Not exotic at all.
- [Ferdinand Lyle tells Sir Malcolm and Vanessa Ives about the non-urgency of the Egyptians]
- Sir Malcolm: This is a matter of some urgency.
- Ferdinand Lyle: Good heavens, Sir Malcolm, there hasn't been anything urgent about the Egyptians for 2,000 years. And I'm dreadfully busy now, you understand. Ever so many papyri to translate. Isn't that a delicious word? Papyri. Sounds like something being eaten by little Persian boys, doesn't it? So, I shall see you Friday next.
- [Ferdinand Lyle asks Sir Malcolm if he knows the source of the Egyptian hieroglyphics he carries]
- Ferdinand Lyle: I do assume you know the source of the writing?
- Sir Malcolm: No.
- Ferdinand Lyle: It's from the Egyptian 'Book of the Dead.'