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Continuity mistake: The series doesn't seem sure what Sunny's rank is. He is described at various times both on screen and in the credits as both Detective Inspector and Detective Sergeant.

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Factual error: The sergeant's stripes on the sleeves of the police officer appearing as a witness at the trial are in a completely incorrect style for a Metropolitan Police sergeant (or indeed by any British police sergeant). She also wears small metal stripes on her epaulettes. These are not worn with tunics, where the stripes are only worn on the sleeves; only her number should appear on her epaulettes.

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Factual error: The judge requires £100,000 to be paid to the court in bail and Yvonne's husband later says he had to cash in bonds to get the money. In Britain, bail is not paid in advance. It is sufficient to prove that it is available if necessary and it is only required to be paid if the defendant later absconds.

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Factual error: David Gerring, one of the senior police officers on the case, always introduces himself as Detective Superintendent. He was actually a Detective Chief Inspector, which is listed correctly on the credits.

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Factual error: In the first scene, the raid on the gambling party, the policemen all wear white shirts. The scene is set in 1958 and the Metropolitan Police did not switch from blue shirts to white until c.1970.

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Factual error: Major Carlysle's medal ribbons have been sewn on upside down. The Queen's South Africa Medal should be worn first, followed by the King's South Africa Medal, and the KSAM bars should be green-white-orange, not orange-white-green (the QSAM is symmetrical, so looks the same either way up). Sgt Major Saunders, on the other hand, is wearing his medals correctly.

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Factual error: Sergeant-Major Saunders is wearing sergeant's stripes. Corporals Drake and Levin are wearing no rank insignia at all.

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Season 2 generally

Factual error: Eve wears an imaginary cap badge. It certainly isn't Royal Military Police.

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Factual error: At both funerals, everyone wears combat dress. Soldiers wear service dress (formal uniform tunic and trousers with collar and tie) to funerals. In fact, combat dress is all anyone ever wears in the series. The British Army has a variety of different uniforms. Combat dress is not worn all the time, especially not by officers or senior NCOs.

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Factual error: The policeman who comes to visit Christie to tell him about the burglaries and those escorting Christie outside the police station are wearing the divisional letter 'X'; Notting Hill, where Rillington Place was located, was actually covered by F Division, which was the division responsible for investigating the crimes. X Division covered neighbouring Kilburn and Willesden.

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Factual error: With two exceptions, all the policemen shown in both 1949 and 1953 are wearing the old-fashioned tunics with high, closed collars. The Metropolitan Police adopted the more modern open-necked tunic with collar and tie in 1948, and this is shown worn by the policeman who visits Christie and by the officer who arrests him.

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Factual error: Although the regiment at the centre of the drama is fictitious, its cap badge looks like nothing that which would be worn by a British regiment. It includes no crown and looks more like a German cap badge.

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Character mistake: The brigadier wears a regimental cap badge. Colonels and brigadiers have their own cap badge.

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Factual error: Eve and Jorn wear uniform most of the time. Although SIB agents (British Army detectives) do sometimes wear uniform, they most often wear civilian clothes, as do German police detectives.

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Factual error: When the two officers salute in Iraq, they give a naval (or American) style palm-down salute, not a British Army palm-forward salute.

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Factual error: The only person ever addressed as "Sir" is the brigadier, and then only occasionally. No other officers ever seem to be addressed in this way.

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Factual error: The wigs in the courtroom scenes are not correct. The barristers' wigs are too full and the judges are wearing the shoulder-length wigs only worn on ceremonial occasions; for normal court work they have worn similar wigs to barristers since the 1840s.

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Factual error: The barristers address the judge as "Your Honour." High Court Judges like Mr Justice Lewis are addressed as "My Lord."

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Men of Iron, Men of Smoke - S4-E4

Factual error: In the flashback to the courtroom scene at the beginning, there is a gavel sitting before the judge. British judges have never used gavels.

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Men of Iron, Men of Smoke - S4-E4

Factual error: One character refers to another as a wanker. The first recorded usage of this term in a sexual sense is in 1950 and as an insult in 1972. The episode is set in 1897 and its language is consistently that of the time; it doesn't use modern language.

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