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Factual error: By law, an officer must already be a serving senior officer in a British police force to be appointed a chief constable. Foreigners, even if serving police officers in their own country, can't just be parachuted in as chief constables.

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Prisoners of War - S8-E12

Factual error: At the beginning of the last sequence a city centre is shown with the caption "Moscow." In fact, the city shown is Budapest, with the Danube, Castle, St Matthias Church, Fisherman's Bastion and Chain Bridge visible.

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Unrequited - S4-E16

Factual error: By its uniforms, rank insignia (i.e. point-down chevrons), drill and instrumentation (e.g. tubas instead of sousaphones), the military band performing at the re-dedication ceremony at the Vietnam War memorial in Washington is a Commonwealth (probably Canadian) band and not an American band. Unlikely at a formal military ceremony in the United States.

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Factual error: A number of episodes show trolleybuses operating in American cities that do not use them (including Washington). Vancouver, where the series was filmed, however, does use them.

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Episode #2.4 - S2-E4

Factual error: There are several errors relating the photo of Mac and Jarvis at Hendon in 1962. 1) Gene Hunt says that he was at Hendon several years behind Mac. First, he began his career with Manchester Police (he says in the first series that he only transferred to the Met in the last year or two); and only the Metropolitan Police train at Hendon. Second, he was already a DCI by 1973 (as we know from the prequel 'Life on Mars', which is referenced in 'Ashes to Ashes'). There's no way he could have reached DCI in such a short time if he didn't join the police until at least the mid-1960s. 2) Hendon didn't actually open until 1974 anyway; before then, the Met training school was at Peel House in Westminster. 3) Apparently Jarvis left Hendon "in his last year." The Met training course actually only lasted for 17 weeks.

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Factual error: The two officers with the French Groupement Mobile 100 at the beginning are wearing Foreign Legion white képis. GM 100 was not a Foreign Legion unit. And even if it were, Foreign Legion officers wear black képis with red tops, not the white of the lower ranks.

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Emergency Exit - S2-E7

Factual error: Ben asks Yale University library to loan him a medieval diary and they immediately send it to him. No library or archive in the world would loan out a unique item like this, even to another university. Usually they are not allowed to leave the premises, except under very strict conditions for a high-profile exhibition, certainly not just sent to an academic who's interested in reading them.

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Season 2 generally

Factual error: Everyone, including other police officers, addresses the detectives as "Detective" rather than using their ranks of "Inspector" or "Sergeant" as they actually would.

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Season 2 generally

Factual error: DI Renton is a Metropolitan Police officer 'parachuted' into Kent to solve a big case. This hasn't happened for many decades. Local police forces investigate their own crimes without help from the Met.

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Factual error: After escaping from Danzig, Grzegorz and Konrad flee to Warsaw, then to the eastern, Soviet-occupied part of Poland. They then make their way on foot right across occupied Poland and Germany to join British forces at Dunkirk, a distance of over 1,000 miles. Not a likely journey on foot at any time, let alone across hostile territory in the middle of a war.

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Factual error: Vernon is referred to as a squadron leader, but wears the rank insignia of the higher rank of wing commander.

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Factual error: Tom wears the trade badge of a naval airman. When he serves on board HMS Exeter he is working in the magazine, not with the aircraft. He then serves aboard HMS Keith, which carried no aircraft, at Dunkirk.

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Factual error: Harry joins the army after the outbreak of war and is then a platoon commander with the British Expeditionary Force during the Battle of France. Actually, all the personnel of the BEF were pre-war regulars or territorials. The personnel who joined for the war were still in training.

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Factual error: Tom joins the Royal Navy after the outbreak of war. He then mysteriously ends up on HMS Exeter during the Battle of the River Plate. In fact, Exeter was already in the South Atlantic at the outbreak of war and the battle occurred only three months later. There is no way that Tom could have completed training and ended up in the South Atlantic so quickly.

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Factual error: Victoria is referred to throughout the film as a 'state'. Since Australia did not exist as a unified country until 1901, there were no states at the time. Each was a separate 'colony' and would have been referred to as such.

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Factual error: All four members of the Kelly gang wore helmets and armour in the final shootout, with long oilskin coats over the top.

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Factual error: Ned Kelly was not clean-shaven as depicted, but had a full beard. A full beard is often still referred to as a 'Ned Kelly beard' in Australia.

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Factual error: As well as the sergeant's stripes on his cuff, Sergeant O'Neil wears three pips on his epaulettes, which would indicate a much more senior rank and would not be worn together with the stripes.

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Factual error: The film depicts a clash between the 'Irish' Kelly gang and the 'English' police. Constable Fitzpatrick is depicted as an upper-class Englishman (and describes himself as British). In reality, Fitzpatrick and most of the other policemen who came into contact with the gang were as Irish as the Kellys.

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Factual error: George Wigg MP wears an RAF tie. Wigg served in the Royal Tank Corps and the Army Educational Corps, but he was never in the RAF. Few men would wear a regimental tie to which they weren't entitled, least of all someone in the public eye, where it would be immediately picked up and ridiculed. Especially given this is set only 17 years after the war (and only just after compulsory National Service ended) at a time when most men were entitled to wear some sort of regimental tie and recognised fellow veterans by the design of their tie.

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