Life on Mars (2006) - 28 mistakes in entire show

Other: In the episode where Sam has to defuse a car bomb, a small boy stares down the camera close up during the street clearance shot.

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: Series 2 episode 1: In the casino, the Three Degrees song "Year of Decision" is being played. This was not issued until 1974.

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.

Continuity: In Series 2 Episode 4, When Sam sits down next to Carol Twilling on the bed, asking, "Do things ever get a bit frisky?" the top button of his shirt is undone. The camera cuts away and back, only to find that there are now miraculously two buttons undone, not just one. Sam has not moved in this time.

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 series one, all the characters watch the 1973 Grand National. In episode 4 of series 2, Gene Hunt is reading a newspaper with a headline referring to Crisp entering the forthcoming Grand National and the weight handicap. Crisp was the runner up to Red Rum in the 1973 Grand National due to its weight handicap disadvantage.

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.

Other: The registration number of the Ford Zephyr police car is RVP154G but the security etching on the window reads EKM414C.

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.

Continuity: In the episode about the Asian drug dealers, when Sam is tied to a bed and an iron is roped to his chest, the ropes change position depending on the camera angle.

Plot hole: In the second series episode involving the Asian drug dealers, they seem to be unaware of heroin. Given that it is set in the 70's and drug use was widespread in the 60's, especially heroin, you would think police officers would be aware of it. That and the classic cop movie of the early 70's, The French Connection. Surely the gene genie would have seen that.

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.

Plot hole: In Series 2, Episode 4, the autopsy doctor told Hunt that he had to pry the "flower of death" from the first victim's severely rigomortised hands, yet he shows the detectives a pristine flower that looks as if it has been freshly picked. Surely the flower should have been crushed?