Factual error: The Merchant Navy rank insignia is very poorly researched. Each officer seems to have a different style of insignia, despite working for the same company and they incorrectly wear rank insignia on the shoulders of their blue uniforms as well as the cuffs. The main character, Junior Third Officer Mortimer, wears a bizarre mix of insignia, apparently consisting of a Royal Navy petty officer's sleeve badge, a Royal Navy chief petty officer's cuff buttons, and a rank badge of three inverted chevrons on his shoulder boards that doesn't seem to resemble anything from reality. In reality, he should simply wear a single cuff ring (or shoulder bar in white uniform).
Episode #1.2 - S1-E2
Factual error: The settlers prepare to burn Verity at the stake as a witch. Witches were never burned in England or her colonies; they were hanged.
Factual error: They show a clip of a kamikaze diving into a ship. The clip they show was actually an event from much later in the war: offshore of Okinawa. No ship on either side was struck by a plane during the Battle of Midway.
Factual error: Johann Eck is dressed as a cardinal and Albrecht von Brandenburg addresses him as "Your Eminence" and kisses his ring. In reality, Eck was not a cardinal. Albrecht, however, was. It should be Eck showing deference to him, not vice versa. Albrecht was also only thirty, half the age of the actor playing him.
Factual error: The Mitanni king and his son are depicted as black Africans. The Mitanni originated in the modern Iran/Iraq area, or possibly as far east as India, but certainly nowhere near Africa. They were definitely not black Africans.
Factual error: When Blackthorne is on Rodrigues' ship, Rodrigues offers him grog. But grog was only invented in 1740, by British Vice Admiral Edward Vernon, whose nickname was "Old Grog" because of his preference for coats made of grogram cloth.
Factual error: Both Inspector Shaw and Chief Inspector Bailie wear their medal ribbons in the wrong order. The Golden Jubilee Medal is worn first, followed by the Diamond Jubilee Medal, followed by (for Bailie) the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal.
Factual error: Gordon Liddy is in federal prison and in solitary confinement, and he is still wearing his gold wedding band. (00:29:36)
Factual error: Harold Alexander, although his rank of major-general is correctly mentioned by the narrator, wears the rank insignia of a full general.
Factual error: Pierre Bezukhov's spectacles are of the type with nose pads, which were not invented until the late 1920's.
Factual error: Sir John Franklin, Francis Crozier and James Fitzjames all wear a crown over an anchor on their epaulettes, the rank badge for a captain with over three years in rank. This is correct for Franklin and Crozier, but Fitzjames only held the rank of commander, and should therefore only be wearing an anchor on his epaulettes.
Factual error: At the picnic, a woman says she is going to New York by train. It is 1828. Railway passenger service in the United States did not begin until 1830 and it would not be possible to travel from North Carolina to New York until some years after that.
Factual error: The Navy Seals call in air support and provide a fire mission to given coordinates. The targets are engaged with rockets and gatling/chain guns. The UH-60 Black Hawk is shown leaving after the air strike. This UH-60 however only had mini-guns in the doors. The type of UH-60 needed for this action would be the UH-60 DAP, which is configured as a gunship and has no troop carrying capacity. The DAP can carry chain guns, mini-guns, missiles and or rockets. (00:03:00 - 00:03:23)
Factual error: In a scene set in March 1968, after Tammy Wynette finishes recording "D-I-V-O-R-C-E," George Richey introduces himself to George Jones as the musical director of "Hee Haw." John Aylesworth and Frank Peppiatt created the "Hee Haw" series in 1969.