Continuity mistake: During the denouement, in the close-ups of Mayor Joseph Richards he and especially JP in the background have strongly sunlit areas over their bodies. In the wider angles, the set is uniformly in shadows. (00:46:30)
Continuity mistake: When Richard has the epiphany about the case with the realization about the mayor, he keeps looking left and right and babbling with both markers in hand. The white one though in some shots has its red lid on, and in others hasn't. (00:32:00)
Continuity mistake: The whole sequence with Humphrey doing his 'visually aided' re-enactment of the night of the murder contains little shot-to-shot inconsistencies from the moment he takes the second whiteboard on. The photo switches hand, he leans to the top of the board when it's time to stick the picture on it, but the same hand is lower on the board at the cut, and so on; in some shots he's touching the board and in their reverse angles he is not. (00:35:40)
Continuity mistake: Martha and Florence are chatting in front of two glasses of wine, courtesy of Catherine. Martha's hand is at a different height, higher on the stem of the glass in one angle, lower against its base in the other main angle the scene is shot under. (00:20:35)
Continuity mistake: Florence and Humphrey take a walk with Emer Byrne. Behind them, a man with a rather noticeable orange T-shirt. Later in the scene when they go back to the jeep, the same man appears again together with the other guy he was chatting with, again walking back and forth just to pad the background. (00:16:00)
Continuity mistake: When Humphrey points out of the strangely lacking item amongst those lined up, the items in question change position between shots; when there's the shot of the whole row, the canteen is at an angle, it is parallel to the rest when the camera pans in close-up. The sandwich bag too is folded differently. (00:06:00)
Continuity mistake: After Judith Dawson's first testimony, Jack thanks her; Florence is just pretending to write and stops, but in the next shot she is back at it, scribbling her pad with the pen. At the end of this new shot, she stops writing, but is writing again in the next, all while DI Jack Mooney talks in continuity. (00:08:55)
Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the episode, Edwina Bousquet scoffs at the apology and gets up. Close-up of Judith Dawson, and you can see for a second in the background the bike with Danny John-Jules entering the premises. But there is no sound effect for it and in the next cuts he's nowhere to be seen; he arrives only later. (00:00:25)
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.
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