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.

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.

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: 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.

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

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.

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?

Factual error: In series 2 episode 5, the bicycle seen being ridden across the shot in the final scenes by a young girl is a Raleigh Wisp, which was a model introduced in 1983 so would not have been available at the time the drama is set - in 1973.

Continuity: In Episode 2,Season 2, during the scene between Hunt and Tyler, which takes place directly after Hunt has been "communicating" his outrage to Dickie Fingers, by hitting Dickie's hand repeatedly with a telephone, Hunt puts his hands in his pockets. However, in the next shot, which is the opposite camera angle, Hunt's hands are suddenly back out of his pockets. When the camera angle changes again, they're back in, all with no movement on Gene Hunt's part.

Factual error: The silver Ford Granada seen in the final episode is a Ghia model, which was not made until 1975.

Plot hole: In the episode involving a suspected factory murder, Gene Hunt apparently can detect Mr. Litton's aftershave from a considerable distance. How was he to know who was wearing it?

Factual error: In series one, "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" by Elton John is used. It wasn't released until the Autumn of 1973. Sam Tyler found himself in the Spring/Summer of that year.

Factual error: In the penultimate episode of series 2, the date is given as July 1973, but in an earlier episode when the police were raiding the drug dealer's house, Cozy Powell's record "Dance with the Devil" can be heard. This was a Christmas time hit in 1973.

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.

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

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.

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.)

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.

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.

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: 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: 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: 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)).

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.

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.