Are You Being Served? (1972) - 22 mistakes in entire show

Continuity: The Gentlemen's and Ladies' Department is on the first, third, or fourth floor of Grace Brothers, depending on the episode.

Other: The gender of Mrs Slocombe's cat is always different in each episode. Sometimes her cat is a female and other times it is a male. (eg. In 'Mrs Slocombe Expects', her cat is female. In 'No Sale', when Mrs. Slocombe complains about her having to get up to have a bath at 6:00 in the morning, she says, "The gurgling of the tank woke him up.").

Other: There is another counter on the floor, to the right of the stairs, that is usually staffed by two women besides Ms. Brahms and Mrs. Slocombe. But throughout the show when there is a on-floor meeting for the entire floor staff, these two are never included in the discussions.

Revealing: On the tape player that the sales girl is using, the reels are moving in opposite directions, the tape can't play doing that.

Revealing: When Mr. Humphries and Mr. Lucas make their toast with the German mugs, Mr. Lucas' mug breaks but Mr. Humphries' does not. A moment later, when Mr. Humphries notices the mug has not broken, you can see that he crushes the mug with his hand.

Continuity: At the end of the show, after they reveal the 'new' ladies department. Mr Grainger is not wearing his glasses, as Mrs Slocombe has them in her purse, the shot changes to Mrs Slocombe, then back to Mr Grainger he is wearing his glasses, and there is no way he could have got them from Mrs Slocombe.

Continuity: Mr. Lucas says the figures for the previous Monday were 325 pounds, and at that point in the day the departments combined (170 and 150) were up to 320, five pounds short. However, later when Mr. Rumbold is talking to Mr. Grace about the sudden drop in sales, he says they are "still 20 pounds short" of the previous Monday.

Other: When Mr Humprhries is talking about the whereabouts of Mr Grainger, explaining about the inability to remove the Al Jolson make up, you can see John Inman looking up before having his face shadowed by a boom mike.

Revealing: At the end, when Mr. Grace is inspecting the Father Christmases, you can see his secretary behind the scenery waiting for her cue.

Visible crew/equipment: In the opening scene in the board room when Mr. Lucas is commenting on how Mrs. Slocombe is "big in the south," you can see the shadow of a boom mike floating back and forth across the table.

Continuity: In this episode, it is revealed that Mr. Lucas' first name is Dick; but way back in series 2 ("The Clock"), his first name is given as "James." This discrepancy takes place a few times over the course of the entire show run.

Revealing: When Mr. Lucas gives Mrs. Slocombe the radio mike, it slips down her dress out of reach; Mr. Harman says "It can't have gone down all that far," and he's right: The short cord of the mike is visible sticking out of the dress for quite some time until Mrs. Slocombe herself pushes the mike down (in the appearance of trying to fish it out).

Other: After Mr. Tebbs finishes telling his story about selling seven toilets in one day, Mr. Lucas makes a wisecrack and Mr. Humphries says "I think it's the way Mr. Tebb [instead of 'Tebbs'] tells it."

Revealing: During the end credits of this episode, a bowl of soup is shown. A frog appears in it for a few seconds and then sinks under the water again. You can see the string being used to pull the frog up. It surfaces as the frog does, and is very easy to spot.

Revealing: When Mr. Humphries complains that the sauce is stuck in the ketchup bottle, one can see the silver plastic seal keeping it in, not some mysterious clog.

Revealing: When the staff are assembled in Mr. Rumbold's office sans Mr. Lucas, Lucas comes rushing in late. However, before he does you can see him standing just outside the door, waiting for his cue to rush in.

Revealing: At the beginning of the Scottish dance when Captain Peacock is demonstrating the sharpness of the swords, he first cuts through the center of a newspaper page held up by Mr. Spooner. However, you can see that, just before the sword makes contact, Spooner actually tears the paper apart down the middle.

Other: When Mr. Humphries first comes back to the department in drag and talks to Capt. Peacock before being directed to the Ladies Dept., you can see, in the background, Mr. Spooner trying desperately (and unsuccessfully) not to laugh.

Audio problem: At the end when Capt. Peacock comes onto the floor in his maintenance garb, Mr. Harman points him to a spot on the floor and tells him to mop it up. In the initial shot Harman is indeed telling him, but when the camera cuts to another angle Harman is visible and still talking but his lips aren't moving.

Continuity: When the robbers have nodded off and Mr. Spooner and Cpt. Peacock cut themselves out of the rope tying them to the cabinet, a clock outside is sounding the hour; if one listens it chimes nine times. But minutes later, after the rest of the group have come in and they make the call to Mr. Rumbold, the latter exclaims "It's after midnight." upon answering the phone even though less than ten minutes have passed.

Revealing: At the very beginning while the opening jingle is still going on, the camera cuts to Mr. Spooner standing behind the counter; he remains motionless, coat in hand, for a second or two before getting his cue to walk across the floor and begin the show.

Revealing: When Mr. Humphries is talking to the canteen manageress about her lines as the hat check girl, in the shots of the former one can see Mr. Harman standing about in the background, waiting and watching for his cue to come on.