It's the little details that make this show so good

Yeah and something as stupid as sending an "SOS" signal in Morse would draw more attention than just saying it or writing it on a paper and waving with it the entire clip.

The actual idea is that if a soldier is captured, generally in a more 'traditional' war rather than the anti-terrorism wars going on right now, the captors will often force the captives to take pictures in which they are dressed and clean and seem to be having a normal time with their captors. The intent is to hurt morale by showing that these soldiers, in a sense, defected and find their captors better than where they came from. In these events, the soldiers will be tortured or killed if they do not take the propaganda photos, but should do everything in their power to also not cooperate. The best way are various signals and symbols that have been developed so that they may send a 'secret visual message' that they are being coerced into cooperation rather than willingly take part. Example: Soldier took a photo with the leader of an opposing regime and crosses his forefinger and middle finger on his free hand, a symbol pre-designated by his unit to signal cooperation under duress.

Sherlock BBC.

thanks!

sherlock is the greatest show ever and i recommend it to everyone

I do too. It also has cute leads and a great story line.