Episode #4.1 - S4-E1
Continuity mistake: Dwayne realises that he did not ask the cute girl's name, and looks at her now far away. Something is wrong with this shot of Joséphine Jobert and her derriere; walking down the same street there's the same couple that is having a drink right next to Dwayne (his black shirt with colourful drawings is not exactly hard to miss). (00:20:50)
Episode #4.6 - S4-E6
Continuity mistake: When JP announces that the SIM card was sold in Isla Jonas, Dwayne in the foreground is holding his hands on the buckle of his belt the opposite way compared to the wider angle. (00:36:25)
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)
Episode #4.7 - S4-E7
Continuity mistake: After the failed team-building exercise, news from the pathologist reopen the case. In the close-up of Danny John-Jules saying "Great...", he has his hands on his hips, but in the rest of the sequence his arms are along his sides. (00:23:20)
Episode #4.7 - S4-E7
Continuity mistake: Impervious to hangovers as usual, DI Goodman is back at work in the morning. During the scene, DS Florence Cassell's hair is messy when the camera is to her right staring at Dwayne, way more neat in the shots of the room with the camera to her left. (00:21:50)
Episode #4.7 - S4-E7
Continuity mistake: A drunk Izzy Cartwright puts her hands all over DI Goodman's face. She sobs with Goodman's head between her hands, index and middle finger in front of the ear - next shot and she is holding that pose but now in the preauricular position we have only the index. (00:21:15)
Episode #4.7 - S4-E7
Continuity mistake: At Catherine's, Goodman witnesses the sister of the victim being drunk and disorderly. He leans with his arm on the back of the chair to get a better view, but blatantly in the reverse shot he also raises his hand to rest his chin on it - all gone when we get back to the original angle. (00:20:50)
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 ★