Fawlty Towers (1975) - 16 major mistakes

Audio problem: In the first scene when Basil is trying to repair his car, when he tries to start the engine, the engine sounds are totally out of sync with Basil turning the ignition key.

Revealing: When the Major first meets Basil, the same shot is used twice of the Major twitching.

Continuity: When Basil brings in Lord Melbury's cases, they swap hands between the exterior and interior shots.

Visible crew/equipment: At the end of the end of the episode where everyone is cleaning up, there is a shadow of the boom mic on the wall.

Revealing: When Basil is turning the fire alarm on and off, he puts the key next to the red box and turns it. However, there isn't a slot for the key to actually go in; he's just holding it close and turning it.

Deliberate "mistake": When Basil is arguing with Polly and eventually decides to call O'Reilly, he trips over the gnome. However when we see Basil come out from behind the desk, he takes the gnome out of a side gap in the desk, perfectly out of reach of Basil tripping over it.

Continuity: When Basil goes to fetch the branch to give the car a thrashing after it breaks down, the car manages to move onto the pavement all by itself.

Revealing: When Basil goes from clapping his hands in the hotel reception area (just after the first hospital scene), he goes from standing completely still showing a clear 'action' cue.

Deliberate "mistake": In nearly all the episodes that the front door of the hotel is open we see a painted board that is meant to be bushes or something outside. Yet whenever we see scenes from the outside of the hotel there is no sign of any trees or bushes.

Continuity: The short elderly gentleman and the tall redhead bimbo are leaving the bar. After 15-20 seconds Basil is shown leaving the bar too. But Basil comes through the lobby before them.

Revealing: When Basil is climbing up the ladder to view the inside of Mr Johnson's room, he accidently peers inside Dr Abbott's room. When he starts doing his "checking" routine on the window before he falls backwards, the pane flexes, indicating that it's made of clear perspex.

Revealing: When Basil is out of the car and shouting at it after its final breakdown, you can see a crew member reflected in the right hand side of the windscreen giving John Cleese cues. It's not Cleese himself, as the reflection remains after he runs out of shot to get the tree branch, and the reflection doesn't mimic every action performed on screen.

Continuity: There appears to be a very obvious splice edit in this episode. When Basil manages to get Kurt off him after being pinned to the kitchen table, he pushes Kurt against the wall knocking him out. Before this Basil is lying flat on the table and we never see him get up to a standing position beforehand.

Continuity: When Basil is talking to Mr. Hamilton in the dining room there is smoke coming from the kitchen. The next moment he goes into the kitchen and all the smoke is gone.

Continuity: Towards the end of the episode, a couple of scenes before Mr Stubbs arrives, we see Basil start up the tape player prior to hiding in the kitchen. The garden gnome on the desk is right next to the tape player at this point. When Sybil turns the tape off the player has rotated 45 degrees or so (despite nobody else having come into reception in the intervening time) and the gnome is now further along the desk towards the camera as we look on the wide shot. The gnome in the next shot is seen beside the checking-in book when Basil wanders out of and back into the office a couple of scenes later, yet when Mr Stubbs is asking about the lintel for the new door shortly after that and we see Sybil writing in the book, the gnome has moved out of shot altogether.

Continuity: When Basil, Polly and Manuel are trying to hide the body in the cupboard in the guests' bedroom, the door behind them leading to the bathroom mysteriously opens and closes between shots throughout the scene.