Continuity mistake: Early morning at the station. Florence just arrived, and Humphrey is telling her about his suspicions on Nicky Hoskins. She replies that she needed the job; between shots there's an obvious difference in the positions she listens in. She is palm to back at first, then both palms upturned. (00:36:50)
Continuity mistake: On the derelict boat, Humphrey invites Dwayne to do some sanding together, but Dwayne has a counterproposal. Humphrey listens to it with his hand on his hip, away, on the hip again. (00:21:15)
Continuity mistake: Dwayne points his finger at JP telling him his former superior said "a policeman can't have any weaknesses." Reverse shot, and Dwayne's hand is nowhere in sight, but it is a moment later. (00:16:30)
Continuity mistake: Dwayne mentions enlisting the help of the Saint Marie diving school. At the following cut, his shirt is more open, revealing more of his trademark tank, and he is holding the notepad where it would have been visible in the close-up. (00:09:55)
Continuity mistake: Humphrey and Florence go back on the boat after the preliminary interview. Florence is on the phone with the Coast guard when she gets on the boat; the phone is on her left hand, and the right hand is occupied by the notepad. When she tells Humphrey the coast guard's report, they have traded places. (00:09:20)
Continuity mistake: Laura Hagen is back in the cabin to retrieve the sample bag she forgot. The bag was under a map on the table, which she moves by a whole lot...or just a tiny bit, when the table is shown from another angle. (00:02:25)
Episode #4.8 - S4-E8
Continuity mistake: When Humphrey is done with the murderer, he walks back to the stand, with Florence fawning over his performance. In the longshot Commissioner Selwyn Patterson 's arm is in the shadow, in the closer angle the shadow goes to half his pec too. (00:47:30)
Episode #4.8 - S4-E8
Continuity mistake: Dinner with the father, part 2. Humphrey is having trouble speaking, and his dad asks "Are you like this at work?" During that shot you can partially see that Mr. Martin Goodman QC is holding the glass of wine, while he's holding a fork in the previous and following. (00:29:25)
Episode #4.8 - S4-E8
Continuity mistake: After the chat with the Commissioner, Humphrey gets infodumped on by his team. Dwayne passes him the insurance documents, then JP speaks about the personal effects of the deceased, just as Goodman split the papers given by Dwayne one per hand. Reverse shot and they are back one stacked on top of the other. Back to the previous angle, and they are divided again. And so on. (00:25:10)
Episode #4.8 - S4-E8
Continuity mistake: Inside Erol Dumas' kitchen, Florence holds the envelope with the money putting her fingers on the empty glove. During a quick cut on Humph though she suddenly wears the glove for the ending of the scene. (00:19:05)
Episode #4.8 - S4-E8
Continuity mistake: Goodman and Cassell are doing the whiteboard routine; when Humphrey asks about the 'refreshments', his marker is uncapped, while it has the lid in the shot before and after. (00:13:05)
Episode #4.8 - S4-E8
Continuity mistake: Everyone is in the cell examining the corpse. The prison guard nods when Dwayne says that they did a complete sweep of the courthouse; his arms are folded. Next shot, his arms are down his sides, and only a second later he folds them. (00:04:55)
Episode #4.8 - S4-E8
Continuity mistake: Humphrey knocks over the flower pot. Florence reacts in one shot from behind raising her arm, but the arm is down again in the instant reverse. (00:00:50)
Episode #4.7 - S4-E7
Continuity mistake: The first part of Humphrey's exposition of the facts is about Dominic Claydon's apparent attempted murder. He hangs his head low in shame. At the cut, the pose became an instant facepalm. (00:39:55)
Episode #4.7 - S4-E7
Continuity mistake: Humphrey sits amongst the suspects for the denouement. When he says "Trust no-one", Florence behind him has both hands joined - but she was in a different position, grabbing her wrist, in the previous shots. (00:39:30)
Episode #4.7 - S4-E7
Continuity mistake: When Humphrey apologizes for interrupting, he says it's an annoying habit of his - he says that with a cut in the middle of sentence that is not linked well at all - he has his hand up to his mouth all of a sudden, and his lips are not moving. (00:38:25)
Episode #4.7 - S4-E7
Continuity mistake: The clothing on Stuart Howe's shoulder is laid out differently between the different angles - as shown by the red lining on display or not. (00:33:30)
Episode #4.7 - S4-E7
Continuity mistake: There are two separate scenes in a market area. In the first, Dwayne is working his special islander charm and explains to JP in person and to DI Goodman on phone something about an altercation the victim had with the tour guide Bill Williams. They go from the station to his impounded office and interview him. Then they reach Dwayne and JP back at the market. Many minutes must have passed then, and yet in both scenes there are always the same extras (guy with a red and white striped tee, for instance) as passersby. (00:25:50 - 00:28:05)
Episode #4.7 - S4-E7
Continuity mistake: Humphrey is rewriting the timeline of the murder (s); he adds 12 AM on the board, and the green line is touching the red number two. That's in the wide angles, because in close-up when he adds "Suffucated", the line is shorter and does not touch the hour anymore. But the mistake does not end here; when he walks away after this close-up, you can see that the time written on board is back to "3 AM", the wrong one. (00:24:20)
Episode #4.7 - S4-E7
Continuity mistake: Dwayne chickens out of the team-building exercise and the phone rings. Goodman puts momentarily his hands to his hips but leaves instantly the position letting the jacket loose - yet at the cut with everyone trying to storm back in saying "I'll get it", he has still his hands on the hips, keeping the jacket pulled back. (00:22:45)
Answer: There's probably no particular reason. Sets and props on long-running TV shows often change as needed and for various reasons throughout a series run.
raywest ★