The Thorn Birds

Revealing mistake: When the youngest baby (Hal) dies and Father Ralph de Bricassart holds him, he is moving (and cannot be dead therefore). When they show the dead baby moments later, it doesn't look like a real baby anymore. (01:32:30)

Factual error: During the huge thunderstorm which causes the fire you can see that it's actually a bright, sunny day with only a mild overcast. Several times you can see the sky in the shots and though sometimes lightning bolts are visible there are only a few light clouds on an otherwise blue sky.

More mistakes in The Thorn Birds

Dane O'Neill: Mom, is this you? Oh, you were beautiful.
Meggie Cleary: Were? Oh the cruelty of youth.
Fiona 'Fee' Cleary: It was a lovely dress. Blue wasn't it?
Meggie Cleary: No, Mum, yours was blue.
Ralph de Bricassart: Meggie's dress was rose. "Ashes of Roses", it was called. And in it, she was the most beautiful thing any of us had ever seen.

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Question: Fee tells Mary she has two deceased sons. She tells her this before the deaths of Stuart and Hal. I don't remember any other of the Cleary children dying in the novel, what two sons is she referring to?

Answer: When Fee was very young, she had an affair with a man and became pregnant. To avoid a scandal, she was quickly married off to Paddy Cleary, a good and honest man, but someone far below Fee in social class. The eldest son (from Fee's previous relationship) never felt that he fit into the family, and both he and the second eldest son left home early on and met premature deaths. Neither character appears in the TV series, they are only mentioned. Stu and Hal are killed later in the story.

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