Continuity mistake: When the Empress Dowager dies, she can't stand opening her eyes and closes them as the servant covers her face. You can see that through the white cloth.
Continuity mistake: Has a scene set during the Festival of Britain (1951). Oldman and Molina are shown at night on the South Bank of the Thames, ostensibly having just attended the Festival. In the background is a very clear view of New Zealand House, which wasn't built until the early 1960s, some ten years after the scene was supposed to take place.
Continuity mistake: In the scene when Bob takes Ritchie to "get laid", Bob approaches the girl in the pink dress at the end of the row, while Ritchie goes to play La Bamba. You see Ritchie play La Bamba and in the background Bob is all over that girl. The next shot cuts to Bob just arriving at the girl.
Continuity mistake: When Donald Woods meets his wife again at the Lesotho airport, his hair has lost most of the black from being dyed, but once he's on the plane, his hair has become blacker again.