Life on Mars (2006) - 14 mistakes in series 1

Continuity: When Gene Hunt pushes Sam Tyler up against the filing cabinet, he has a cigarette in his mouth. When the shot cuts back to Gene Hunt's face, a split second later, the cigarette is gone.

Factual error: When Sam wakes up in 1973 he is on a building site that is the Mancunian way under construction, this road was completed in 1967. (Though producers deliberately decided to include this, it is still a mistake within the context of the show.)

Continuity: When Sam and Gene enter the pub with the T.V., they both stand at the bar with Gene leaning one hand against the bar. In the next shot Gene is leaning on it with both hands. When the shot cuts again he is back in his original position with one hand on the bar.

Factual error: Dialogue in the episode states that the date was 16 March 1973. However, in the first scene, the song that is played on the soundtrack is "Ballroom Blitz" by The Sweet, which was not released until August 1973.

Factual error: The Austin Allegro panda car parked outside the police station is a series 3 model which didn't start production until 1979, and this programme is set in 1973.

Factual error: Sam conducted the taped interview, stating that it was 'Wednesday 16th March'. In 1973, 16 March was a Friday, not a Wednesday. However, 16 March was a Wednesday in 2005, the year the episode was written.

Factual error: In episode three, there is a building in the background somewhere with the letters "PALACE" on the side, this is a hotel. However in 1973 the very same building was called the Refuge not the Palace.

Continuity: In the series finale, "Life is a Rock," broadcast on ABC 4/1/09, about half-way through the episode, Det. Sam Tyler is approaching a boat, searching for his younger self. In his hands is an M-14 rifle he has taken from a thug. He goes on board, enters the cabin, spots the child Sam Tyler, and sets the rifle down. A minute later, he picks up the M-14 and goes back on deck. In the next shot, however, he's actually holding an AK-47, which gets kicked out of his hands and into the water.

Continuity: When Gene and Sam are having a discussion in the gents, his tie goes from being lopsided to straight, despite his hands never leaving his pockets.

Other: A policeman trips over the steps in the background during a chat between Gene and Sam.

Revealing: When in the mortuary looking at the female murder victim's body, watch as Sam Tyler says "cord, no other attack marks". When the camera cuts to the corpse at this very moment, you can briefly see the "corpse" swallowing.

Plot hole: Carling is seen at his locker putting a cassette tape in his pocket after Billy Kemble's death. If he did have a transcript, why did he have a brawl with Di Tyler later on over another one? Skelton only made one copy.

Factual error: In a car chase, "Love Lies Bleeding" by Elton John is used. It didnt come out as an album track until November of 1973.

Factual error: Sam's watch (which we see when he checks it just after the escape attempt) is a quartz movement "analog" with a little window at the bottom where an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) display shows the date. LCD didn't appear on watches or calculators for another five or six years.(Although in 1973, there were Digital Watches with LED (Light Emitting Diode) displays. (You can see Roger Moore as James Bond wearing one in "Live and Let Die"(1973)).