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All Roads - S3-E5

Factual error: When Detective Inspector Sara Lunt's photograph in uniform is shown on the TV news she is wearing a double row of silver lace below her hat badge. Only chief constables wear this insignia, well above the rank of inspector.

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Episode #4.2 - S4-E2

Factual error: Ram says he has two "Chief Constable's Commendations" (which are also shown on his office wall). He has spent his entire career in the Metropolitan Police, which has a Commissioner instead of a Chief Constable.

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Show generally

Factual error: Sir John Franklin's wife is consistently addressed and referred to as Lady Jane. Since she only held a title due to her husband's knighthood and not in her own right, she was actually Lady Franklin. Nobody in the circles in which she moved would have addressed or referred to her as Lady Jane.

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Factual error: Sir John Franklin, Francis Crozier and James Fitzjames all wear a crown over an anchor on their epaulettes, the rank badge for a captain with over three years in rank. This is correct for Franklin and Crozier, but Fitzjames only held the rank of commander, and should therefore only be wearing an anchor on his epaulettes.

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Factual error: The Chief Constable of Dyfed-Powys Police is depicted as a mixed-race woman named Tyler. At the time, the chief constable was actually Terry Grange, a white man. The only woman to ever head the force, temporarily in 2012 (after the period covered by the series), was Jackie Roberts, who is also white. This is a factual series covering real events, not a work of fiction.

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Episode #1.6 - S1-E6

Factual error: The Indian police officer who arrests Sobhraj after the jewel robbery is a detective sergeant. The Indian police do not use the rank of sergeant. Head constable is the equivalent.

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Season 4 generally

Factual error: Sir Martin Charteris, depicted as being Private Secretary throughout the series (which begins in 1979), actually retired in 1977. Sir Philip Moore and Sir William Heseltine were the real Private Secretaries during this period.

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48:1 - S4-E8

Factual error: Michael Shea was not forced to resign ignominiously as Press Secretary in 1986. He actually left in 1987 and was appointed Companion of the Royal Victorian Order for his service.

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Fagan - S4-E5

Factual error: The Guards band playing at the garden party (in 1982) includes female musicians in the same uniform as the men. Until integration in 1992, the only female musicians in the British Army were members of the Band of the Women's Royal Army Corps. Women did not join Guards bands and wear their uniform until well into the 1990s.

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Factual error: The show doesn't seem sure what Henry and Dominic's titles are. Dominic is referred to as both Lord Wingrave and Mr Wingrave (and his wife as Lady Wingrave). Henry is referred to at various times as Lord Wingrave, Lord Henry Wingrave, Sir Henry Wingrave and Mr Wingrave. Dominic is the elder brother, so if the title was inherited only he would hold it. When he dies, it would pass to his son, Miles, not his younger brother. If they held the titles as younger sons of a duke or marquess (although there is never any indication that they have an elder brother, so this seems unlikely) then they would be Lord Dominic and Lord Henry, not Lord Wingrave. In neither case would they be addressed, especially not by their staff who would definitely know the correct form, as Mr Wingrave or Sir Henry.

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Factual error: In Massachusetts, Atticus, Leti and George are attacked by the local sheriff and his deputies, who are patrolling the county roads. In Massachusetts, sheriffs run the county jails, but they do not (and did not) handle routine policing, which is the responsibility only of municipal police departments.

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The Two Faces, Part One - S1-E3

Factual error: The British policeman carries an American-style long baton on his belt. No British police force used batons before 1994 (the series is set in 1987), and batons of this pattern were never used in any case.

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Factual error: The show, which is set in California in 1947, mentions the gas chamber, lethal injection and the electric chair as methods of execution in the state. Two murderers are sentenced to death by lethal injection and one is depicted being instead executed in the electric chair, which the governor states has been brought out of retirement for the occasion. In fact, California adopted the gas chamber as its sole method of execution in 1937 (having previously used hanging). Lethal injection was not used in the United States at all until 1982 and not adopted in California until 1993 (becoming the prime method in 1996). California has never used the electric chair.

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Factual error: By law, an officer must already be a serving senior officer in a British police force to be appointed a chief constable. Foreigners, even if serving police officers in their own country, can't just be parachuted in as chief constables.

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Prisoners of War - S8-E12

Factual error: At the beginning of the last sequence a city centre is shown with the caption "Moscow." In fact, the city shown is Budapest, with the Danube, Castle, St Matthias Church, Fisherman's Bastion and Chain Bridge visible.

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Unrequited - S4-E16

Factual error: By its uniforms, rank insignia (i.e. point-down chevrons), drill and instrumentation (e.g. tubas instead of sousaphones), the military band performing at the re-dedication ceremony at the Vietnam War memorial in Washington is a Commonwealth (probably Canadian) band and not an American band. Unlikely at a formal military ceremony in the United States.

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Show generally

Factual error: A number of episodes show trolleybuses operating in American cities that do not use them (including Washington). Vancouver, where the series was filmed, however, does use them.

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Episode #2.4 - S2-E4

Factual error: There are several errors relating the photo of Mac and Jarvis at Hendon in 1962. 1) Gene Hunt says that he was at Hendon several years behind Mac. First, he began his career with Manchester Police (he says in the first series that he only transferred to the Met in the last year or two); and only the Metropolitan Police train at Hendon. Second, he was already a DCI by 1973 (as we know from the prequel 'Life on Mars', which is referenced in 'Ashes to Ashes'). There's no way he could have reached DCI in such a short time if he didn't join the police until at least the mid-1960s. 2) Hendon didn't actually open until 1974 anyway; before then, the Met training school was at Peel House in Westminster. 3) Apparently Jarvis left Hendon "in his last year." The Met training course actually only lasted for 17 weeks.

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Factual error: The two officers with the French Groupement Mobile 100 at the beginning are wearing Foreign Legion white képis. GM 100 was not a Foreign Legion unit. And even if it were, Foreign Legion officers wear black képis with red tops, not the white of the lower ranks.

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Emergency Exit - S2-E7

Factual error: Ben asks Yale University library to loan him a medieval diary and they immediately send it to him. No library or archive in the world would loan out a unique item like this, even to another university. Usually they are not allowed to leave the premises, except under very strict conditions for a high-profile exhibition, certainly not just sent to an academic who's interested in reading them.

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