HOLDEN’S plant closure at Elizabeth and its Australian motorsport rivalry with Ford have led to an unusual tribute in the new US hit TV series Mindhunter — thanks to an Adelaide connection.

Its lead character, an FBI criminal profiler, is named special agent Holden Ford as a salute by the show’s creator, South Australian raised playwright and screenwriter Joe Penhall.

“The hero of the show is indeed named after the cars,’’ says Penhall, who is now based in London but also works in the US.

The character, played by actor Jonathan Groff, is based on real-life former FBI special agent John Edward Douglas, one of the agency’s first criminal profilers who began interviewing serial killers in prison in the 1970s to develop a psychological analysis of their motives.

“I started with (the name) Holden after Holden Caulfield in Catcher In The Rye, the ultimate young green antihero of American literature,’’ explains Penhall, who returns most years to visit family and friends in Adelaide and Melbourne.

“But I was driving a Holden when I came up with the idea, a rental, and it got me thinking ... and Ford seemed the obvious second name.

Mindhunter’s first season premiered internationally on Netflix last Friday and is produced by David Fincher (Seven, Fight Club, Gone Girl, The Social Network), who also directed four episodes, and actress Charlize Theron, among others.

“The show is about extinction as much as anything else,’’ says Penhall, 50, who was born in the UK but moved via Perth to Adelaide when he was four, and went to Pembroke School and university here.

“Holden Ford in my show is presiding over the death of an era, the death of the old FBI full of white men with guns to make way for a new era of behaviouralism and psychological training in law enforcement.’’

Douglas, who wrote the book on which Mindhunter is based, asked why his character couldn’t just be called something like “Jack” and Penhall admits that Holden was “a mischievous choice”.

“Holden is a much less certain proposition,’’ says Penhall, whose other successes include The Kinks musical Sunny Afternoon, his play Blue/Orange and film adaptation The Road.

“Given the lifelong rivalry between Holden and Ford, he’s a very divided, conflicted character.

“It’s a good name for an American character but also a name very close to my heart coming from SA. I love Holdens and I know they won’t be around for much longer ... (it’s) the end of an era.’’

However, the Holden Ford name will live on as Mindhunter has already been renewed for a second season.