Continuity mistake: Backstage, Commissioner Selwyn Patterson reveals to the band members about the message from the victim. The band member in purple has his hand clasped on the beret in noticeably different ways as the shot changes. (00:07:50)
Continuity mistake: When Jack picks up the fork from the floor, it keeps turning around in the first couple of shots and in the last couple of shots (when Florence goes to talk to the others). (00:04:45)
Plot hole: At the beginning of the episode it is established that Samuel Palmer "was putting out his rubbish just after midnight", but in the rest of the case (coroner report, case discussion at the station, question to the suspects) the time of death is 10 PM. The part of the dialogue at the beginning (Dwayne talking to Jack and Florence outside the house) is cut in home video releases, but still appears in Jack's case-solving flashback reel. Other references to the wrong midnight time appear in Cordell' statement as he turns himself in (says he entered from the window " Just before midnight.") and Jack's usual schtick with the suspects ("Shortly after midnight, Eugene's neighbour, Samuel, he heard arguing").
Continuity mistake: Getting to celebrate at the end of the episode, Dwayne is chewing on some ribs, but in the reverse shot Darlene is reacting to him eating from a fork in the foreground. He puts down the same rib later when she has to get up to answer the door. (00:50:55)
Continuity mistake: When JP and Cordell Thomas toast at the end of the episode, the obligatory bottle of Etensel in JP's hand is facing the opposite way between shots. (00:50:45)
Continuity mistake: When Jack says "I am so sorry, Dwayne" telling him to go to the birthday dinner, he repeats in the two separate shots the same gesture, hand starting from a different spot at each cut. (00:31:55)
Continuity mistake: Florence at the beginning of the episode dismounts from the police Defender putting her right hand on the inside handle of the door, but she has her fingers at the top of the open window in the next shot. (00:03:40)
Murder on the Day of the Dead - S7-E5
Continuity mistake: Uncharacteristically, Commissioner Selwyn Patterson joins the police investigation, at least at the very beginning. He takes his jacket off, and his tie reaches slightly below the belt of his pants. When he finds the body, the tie is a couple inches above the belt. Technically he is off-screen for what amounts of few minutes of plot, but it'd be ridiculous to picture him undoing his tie and making a tighter knot while he's in the middle of a search in the woods - he'd have just removed the tie and pocketed it entirely if it was being a nuisance. (00:07:05)
Murder on the Day of the Dead - S7-E5
Continuity mistake: Jack puts the CCTV CDs on the counter, and the owner of the club peeks at them folding the newspaper. In the next shot, the newspaper is straight as it was before. (00:32:55)
Murder on the Day of the Dead - S7-E5
Continuity mistake: During her interrogation, Charlotte Hamilton walks back to the table with a stronger drink. Before she sits down, the lemonade jug has more liquid in it than in the shots before and after. (00:26:45)
Murder on the Day of the Dead - S7-E5
Audio problem: When Jack and Florence talk to the club treasurer drinking lemonade, several times in shots where Ardal O'Hanlon is out of focus in the foreground you can hear his voice being dubbed in while he was doing simple a stand-in role without opening his mouth. (00:26:20)
Murder on the Day of the Dead - S7-E5
Continuity mistake: When the police visit the club treasurer Charlotte Hamilton, in the opening wide shot Jack's tie curves sharply because of the wind, but before the cut the wind breaks and the tie gets down. However in the next shot his tie is all the way windblown. Likewise, Charlotte's bang in that same shot is messy and upturned, but is back to normal in the next one. (00:25:35)
Murder on the Day of the Dead - S7-E5
Continuity mistake: Jack and Florence are interrogating the instructor Adam Warner at the club. During the scene there are transitions between frontal views of the suspect and wide shots of the whole terrace with everyone sitting. Each time, Rory Fleck Byrne's hand switches place, being on the armrest in one shot, on the thigh in the next, etc. (00:18:25)
Murder on the Day of the Dead - S7-E5
Continuity mistake: Officer J.P. Hooper hands DS Florence Cassell the item found in the glove box. The opening of the evidence bag flops at the bottom, but in the close-up, when she says that it's probably expensive, she holds the plastic flap against her palm, sideways. (00:12:25)
The Healer - S7-E4
Continuity mistake: At the end of the episode, Dwayne apologizes to Darlene. She puts a hand on his chest telling him he has just one more chance. The hand changes position in the next couple of cuts. (00:50:55)
The Healer - S7-E4
Continuity mistake: In the scene with Darlene giving Dwayne the ultimatum, when he fumbles managing to just say "You know...", Danny John-Jules changes position entirely (arms forward, arms back) within a cut. (00:38:20)
The Healer - S7-E4
Other mistake: The coroner report that mentions the nicotine poisoning has also as information in the first column that the victim came from the hospital with a suspected stab wound. That bit of information makes no sense and it's not mentioned in any way. Reused prop? (00:19:00)
The Healer - S7-E4
Continuity mistake: Jack inspecting the box in the victim's house is holding the old picture with his hand positioned on the corner/side in close-up, but it was in the middle of the bottom side when he picked it up. And another dramatic change happens in the cut that follows once he reads the names. (00:18:30)
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 ★