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Season 4 generally

Factual error: A woman who was sentenced to death while pregnant, as Long Susan was, was never hanged. Her sentence was stayed until she gave birth and then always commuted to imprisonment. Most such women were released after only a few years.

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A White World Made Red - S4-E3

Factual error: DI Reid is sworn back in as a constable by DI Drake. Only a magistrate can swear in a police constable, which is a judicial office.

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Some Conscience Lost - S4-E2

Factual error: As Colonial Secretary, Joseph Chamberlain had no authority over India, which was not considered to be one of the colonies. There was a separate Secretary of State for India, a position held in 1897 by Lord George Hamilton.

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Some Conscience Lost - S4-E2

Factual error: The depiction of the hanging is completely inaccurate. By the 1890s, the gallows at Newgate were housed in a room within the prison, not in the courtyard. Prisoners' wrists and legs were pinioned before they were hanged, not left free as depicted. The long drop was used in Britain from the 1870s, not the short drop depicted. The large knot depicted was not used in Britain (although it was in America) ; a simple sliding loop was actually used, and this was positioned under the jawbone at the side of the neck, not at the back of the neck, which would quite probably not have broken the neck, leaving the person to strangle to death.

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Show generally

Factual error: Assistant Commissioner Dove's accent is working-class London. Although he is a fictional character, it is inconceivable that an assistant commissioner in the 1890s would sound like this (or be as young as he is). All officers above the rank of superintendent in those days were men who were transferred directly into senior rank, having previously had long and distinguished careers in senior ranks in the army, colonial police, civil service or law. The first man to be promoted to senior rank from the lower ranks was James Olive, who was promoted to assistant commissioner in 1920 at the age of 64 and after 48 years service.

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The Strangers' Home - S4-E1

Factual error: The Risaldar-Major is in command of the Bengal Lancers. The commandants of Indian regiments were actually British, as were many of the officers. The Risaldar-Major was the senior Indian officer of a cavalry regiment, but held a similar position to the Regimental Sergeant Major in a British regiment. He certainly did not command it. Although commanding great respect, he was junior to all the regiment's British officers.

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Brocket Hall - S1-E3

Factual error: Whilst hanging, drawing and quartering was indeed still the prescribed penalty for treason (and would remain so for the most serious offences until 1870, although the Newport Chartists were the last to actually receive the sentence), this barbaric punishment had not actually been carried out since the 17th century. By the 19th century the condemned person was hanged until dead and the head then symbolically severed by a surgeon. Nobody, least of all Lord Melbourne, would have believed in 1839 that the full punishment was going to be carried out, but they all talk as though they expect it to be.

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Show generally

Factual error: The DI refers to the local policeman as "Officer" Fuller. No British police officer would use this term to refer to another British police officer. She'd have said Constable Fuller or PC Fuller.

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The Queen's Husband - S1-E6

Factual error: Victoria and Albert receive a wedding present from the Lord Mayor of Leicester. The Mayor of Leicester did not receive Lord Mayor status until 1928.

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An Ordinary Woman - S1-E5

Factual error: Schloss Rosenau, Prince Albert's home in Coburg, looks nothing like the place depicted. It is not atop a hill and actually looks more like a country house than a fairytale castle.

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Achilles - S2-E5

Factual error: Sean says he was the coxswain on HMS Achilles. However, in the previous episode's flashback to the beginning of the red flu outbreak when Achilles was still in operation he was shown wearing lieutenant's rank insignia. The coxswain is the senior rating aboard a Royal Navy submarine and holds the rank of chief petty officer or warrant officer; he is certainly not a commissioned officer.

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Solace - S2-E4

Factual error: The dead Royal Navy submarine captain wears a beret. British submarine captains still wear the traditional submarine captain's white-topped peaked cap if they wear headgear at all. His cap badge also features the king's crown, which has not been worn since George VI's death in 1952, instead of the current queen's crown.

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Solace - S2-E4

Factual error: The Royal Australian Navy special forces operator Wolf Taylor is a 'senior chief'. There is no such rank as senior chief petty officer in the RAN. The two most senior non-commissioned ranks are chief petty officer and warrant officer (the latter a non-commissioned rank and not the same as an American WO).

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Show generally

Factual error: It is implied throughout the show (and explicitly stated a couple of times) that Reid is in command of H Division. From the earliest days of the Metropolitan Police, a division was actually commanded by a uniformed superintendent, not a detective inspector.

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Achilles - S2-E5

Factual error: Sean, a member of the Royal Navy, refers to one of his own officers as a "Lootenant"; no British serviceman would ever use this American pronunciation, we pronounce it "Leftenant".

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Lockdown - S1-E6

Factual error: Dr Scott's official personnel record shows that she received her only medical degree, an MD, from Cambridge University. However, British universities do not award an MD as a first medical degree; in Britain, unlike the USA, this is a very prestigious (and rare) postgraduate research degree only awarded to very highly-qualified doctors. The medical qualification degree at Cambridge is an MBBChir (Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery), which is equivalent to an American MD. Although Americans expect doctors to have an MD, it is extremely unlikely that an official personnel record would give false information. The record also shows that her first degree was a BS in chemistry from Oxford. Oxford does not award a BSc degree (as they are called in Britain); most of its undergraduate degrees, even in science, are BAs.

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Solace - S2-E4

Factual error: The depth gauge on the Royal Navy submarine shows depths in American English 'meters' instead of British English 'metres'. Since British submarines are British-built and use British equipment, this would never happen.

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Dead Reckoning - S1-E3

Factual error: Ruskov introduces himself as a vice-admiral. However, he wears the sleeve insignia of an admiral of the fleet, two ranks higher: a wide stripe and four regular stripes (instead of the wide stripe and two regular stripes of a vice-admiral). On his epaulettes he wears the four stars worn by an admiral of the fleet until 1962, instead of the single large star of a modern admiral of the fleet or the two regular stars of a vice-admiral. Given Ruskov, it is inconceivable that he would reduce his own rank or wear the insignia of a higher rank but not use it.

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Show generally

Factual error: The Metropolitan Police isn't a national police force (except for close protection and anti-terrorist matters). It has no authority over other police forces. It doesn't take over criminal cases from other police forces. It hasn't even provided investigation teams on request for decades. Every force handles its own investigations. A Met chief superintendent and his team coming in, as depicted here, and taking over an Avon and Somerset investigation just wouldn't happen.

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Map of the Seven Knights - S5-E10

Factual error: The Czech crime database (which appears to be an official Czech database) is headed 'Czechoslovakia'. Czechoslovakia has not existed since the Czech Republic and Slovakia separated in 1993 and neither country uses the term any more.

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