Return of the Prodigal - S5-E1
Continuity mistake: During Albert's flashback explanation of how he got caught cheating at cards, a blonde girl is sitting at 90 degrees to him at the table. Then, in the next shot, she's sitting right next to him.
New Recruits - S5-E2
Other mistake: When Mickey first opens the newspaper to show the article on Fielding and Wood, in fact the article just repeats the same first three paragraphs of text again and again. (00:01:51)
New Recruits - S5-E2
Continuity mistake: When the gallery is initially shown, it is covered with red banners. When it is shown at the end of the episode, the banners have vanished. (00:45:17 - 00:57:15)
New Recruits - S5-E2
Factual error: The contract Stone and his team force Carlton Wood and Harry Fielding to sign guaranteeing Fowler's widow the royalties from his invention for life is signed under duress and is therefore invalid. It is hard to believe that none of Stone's team know this, but it is impossible to believe that Carlton Wood wouldn't.
New Recruits - S5-E2
Factual error: Knocking out fit, healthy adults by pumping an anaesthetic gas into a large, open room in which they are sitting is an incredibly stupid and dangerous thing to do. In order to do so, you'd have to know everything about them - age, weight, medical history, and so on. Killing them? Easy. Use cyanide gas. Knocking them out for a few hours? Impossible. Incidentally, why is it that the next morning when the grifters reveal their plan, nobody talks to the guards about what happened?
Other mistake: Mickey and Ash tell Sean and Emma all about the Fortnuss gold robbery, "the third largest bullion robbery in British criminal history." Emma tells them that they know absolutely nothing about it - they have never even heard of it. She goes on to explain that they don't know anything about the robbery because "We weren't exactly up on our current affairs in 1996." If neither she nor Sean knew anything about the raid, how would she know it took place in 1996? (00:06:29)
Factual error: Emma steals what is allegedly a "private ambulance", which is a small courier-style van. No ambulance - regardless of whether it's NHS or private - would ever be a van of such a small size. It's completely unsuitable both in terms of kit and in terms of transportation. On top of all that, you can see on the van where it states "Co-Operative Funeral Care", and the producers forgot to cover it up. (00:16:35)
Factual error: Albert's release papers show he was sentenced to 2 years' imprisonment at the county court. This is completely incorrect: he would have been sentenced at a Crown Court given his was a criminal offence. County courts are strictly for civil cases, not criminal ones. Additionally, "fraud" is not the offence under which he would have been convicted. (00:49:52)
Factual error: As someone with a criminal record Mickey Bricks would not be allowed an "open" visit with Harry Holmes / Albert Stroller while each was in prison. Their visit would be "closed" - Stroller/Holmes would be in a small booth, separated from Mickey by a Perspex screen. This mistake is made in both "Gold Mine" (with Holmes) and also in "Lest Ye Be Judged" (with Stroller).
Factual error: Emma gives their mark, Judge Anthony Stone, the name and address of Albert Stroller - Faverton Open Prison. Throughout the episode we see Stroller inside the prison, and we see what it looks like from outside when he is released. It is absolutely not an open prison, which would not have cell blocks and would not be enclosed in huge brick walls. The prison they show looks more like a medium or even high security inner city prison.
Factual error: Their mark, Judge Anthony Kent, presides over his courtroom using a gavel. British judges have never used gavels.
Factual error: Albert Stroller goes before the parole board, is approved, and released on the same day. That is impossible. The parole board will meet, interview the prisoner, then take depositions from other interested parties. If they approve parole, they will then pass their recommendation on to the Home Office who will approve or decline it. All this takes three or four days at least, so there is no way for Stroller to be out on the street to meet the bent judge right away.
Factual error: Albert's release papers show he was born on 3rd June 1933. However, in the season 4 episode "Getting Even", his time in the US Air Force fighting in Europe in WW2 is discussed at length. Given VE Day was in May 1945, that would have made him 11 (at the very oldest) at the end of WW2: impossible to have served in this timeframe. That doesn't even include the half year of USAF training he would have undergone. The youngest soldier to fight for the US was 12: Albert would have been 10 and a half.
Factual error: Andrew Campbell is a psychoanalyst (when Emma leaves his office, a close-up of his nameplate is shown). There's no way a psychoanalyst would be sitting on a parole board, which he does subsequently in the episode. Their skills simply aren't required or relevant to a parole board. The show seems to be confusing psychoanalysts with psychologists (who do indeed frequently sit on parole boards) - but the jobs, roles and requirements are completely different for each.
Other mistake: The end credits for this episode are actually a repeat of the credits for the previous episode Lest Ye Be Judged. (00:51:10)
Factual error: Ash tells the gang that corrupt politician Rhona Christie "took a marginal seat", which we know includes the youth club in Poplar, Greater London. In fact Poplar and Limehouse is an ultra safe Labour constituency. The sitting member has a majority of over 20,000. It has never been even close to marginal, and a meticulous researcher like Three Socks Morgan wouldn't make a mistake like that.
Factual error: Albert and Emma pose for phony wedding photographs in front of a green chromakey screen in order to have a new background created on computer. However, Emma is holding a garland of flowers surrounded by green foliage. You can't have anything green in the foreground when using green chromakey as it will drop out too and become part of the superimposed background.
Suggested correction: "Green screen" chromakey can be set to very fine tolerances. The garland of flowers Emma is holding is a much darker green than the chromakey curtain behind them and could easily be incorporated into the completed composite photograph.
Plot hole: When Albert, Mickey and Emma are trying to decide which nationality of millionaire Albert will pose as, they decide not to go with an English millionaire, since Albert at this point tries and fails to do a remotely convincing upper-class English accent. However, in many earlier episodes (such as "Gold Mine") he has no problems at all in putting on a convincing upper-class English accent.
The Road Less Travelled - S5-E6
Plot hole: The only people who respond to Harry Fielding's classified ad seeking victims of the gang are three people who, it turns out, are actually working with Mickey Bricks. Considering how prolific the grifters are I rather think Fielding would be inundated with genuine people seeking revenge, but not one shows up. Not one? Simply unbelievable.
The Road Less Travelled - S5-E6
Character mistake: The plan hatched by Carlton Wood and Harry Fielding makes no sense at all. They recruit three people who they think were victims of Micky Bricks' crew, asking them each to deposit a cheque for £1,000,000 into an account that their accomplice Alfie will show to Albert Stroller to "prove" his wealth. They are on a hiding to nothing. A bank statement will always show a ledger balance - all funds including uncleared cheques - and an available balance, the amount of money in the account that can be withdrawn at any one time. Alfie's account will show an available balance of nil and will convince nobody of anything. A city wideboy like Wood would know this and would ask for the deposits to be made by account transfer or even in cash, or he could even cut out of the middle men and prepare a fake bank statement. A ruthless businessman like him would have no trouble at all arranging a simple thing like that. The way he does things is uncharacteristically clumsy and includes nothing but loose ends.
Suggested correction: There are a number of prisons in the UK that house both category C and D prisoners. This would mean it operates as an "open prison" to some prisoners, but still requires the security precautions of a higher security facility.
Rubbish. Stroller is under secure lockup - treated leniently by the guards perhaps but if the prison we see does have an 'open' section he most definitely is not in it.