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Factual error: The policeman who comes to visit Christie to tell him about the burglaries and those escorting Christie outside the police station are wearing the divisional letter 'X'; Notting Hill, where Rillington Place was located, was actually covered by F Division, which was the division responsible for investigating the crimes. X Division covered neighbouring Kilburn and Willesden.

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Factual error: With two exceptions, all the policemen shown in both 1949 and 1953 are wearing the old-fashioned tunics with high, closed collars. The Metropolitan Police adopted the more modern open-necked tunic with collar and tie in 1948, and this is shown worn by the policeman who visits Christie and by the officer who arrests him.

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Factual error: Although the regiment at the centre of the drama is fictitious, its cap badge looks like nothing that which would be worn by a British regiment. It includes no crown and looks more like a German cap badge.

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Character mistake: The brigadier wears a regimental cap badge. Colonels and brigadiers have their own cap badge.

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Factual error: Eve and Jorn wear uniform most of the time. Although SIB agents (British Army detectives) do sometimes wear uniform, they most often wear civilian clothes, as do German police detectives.

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Factual error: When the two officers salute in Iraq, they give a naval (or American) style palm-down salute, not a British Army palm-forward salute.

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Factual error: The only person ever addressed as "Sir" is the brigadier, and then only occasionally. No other officers ever seem to be addressed in this way.

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Factual error: The wigs in the courtroom scenes are not correct. The barristers' wigs are too full and the judges are wearing the shoulder-length wigs only worn on ceremonial occasions; for normal court work they have worn similar wigs to barristers since the 1840s.

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Factual error: The barristers address the judge as "Your Honour." High Court Judges like Mr Justice Lewis are addressed as "My Lord."

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Men of Iron, Men of Smoke - S4-E4

Factual error: In the flashback to the courtroom scene at the beginning, there is a gavel sitting before the judge. British judges have never used gavels.

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Men of Iron, Men of Smoke - S4-E4

Factual error: One character refers to another as a wanker. The first recorded usage of this term in a sexual sense is in 1950 and as an insult in 1972. The episode is set in 1897 and its language is consistently that of the time; it doesn't use modern language.

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Season 4 generally

Factual error: A woman who was sentenced to death while pregnant, as Long Susan was, was never hanged. Her sentence was stayed until she gave birth and then always commuted to imprisonment. Most such women were released after only a few years.

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A White World Made Red - S4-E3

Factual error: DI Reid is sworn back in as a constable by DI Drake. Only a magistrate can swear in a police constable, which is a judicial office.

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Some Conscience Lost - S4-E2

Factual error: As Colonial Secretary, Joseph Chamberlain had no authority over India, which was not considered to be one of the colonies. There was a separate Secretary of State for India, a position held in 1897 by Lord George Hamilton.

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Some Conscience Lost - S4-E2

Factual error: The depiction of the hanging is completely inaccurate. By the 1890s, the gallows at Newgate were housed in a room within the prison, not in the courtyard. Prisoners' wrists and legs were pinioned before they were hanged, not left free as depicted. The long drop was used in Britain from the 1870s, not the short drop depicted. The large knot depicted was not used in Britain (although it was in America) ; a simple sliding loop was actually used, and this was positioned under the jawbone at the side of the neck, not at the back of the neck, which would quite probably not have broken the neck, leaving the person to strangle to death.

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Factual error: Assistant Commissioner Dove's accent is working-class London. Although he is a fictional character, it is inconceivable that an assistant commissioner in the 1890s would sound like this (or be as young as he is). All officers above the rank of superintendent in those days were men who were transferred directly into senior rank, having previously had long and distinguished careers in senior ranks in the army, colonial police, civil service or law. The first man to be promoted to senior rank from the lower ranks was James Olive, who was promoted to assistant commissioner in 1920 at the age of 64 and after 48 years service.

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The Strangers' Home - S4-E1

Factual error: The Risaldar-Major is in command of the Bengal Lancers. The commandants of Indian regiments were actually British, as were many of the officers. The Risaldar-Major was the senior Indian officer of a cavalry regiment, but held a similar position to the Regimental Sergeant Major in a British regiment. He certainly did not command it. Although commanding great respect, he was junior to all the regiment's British officers.

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Brocket Hall - S1-E3

Factual error: Whilst hanging, drawing and quartering was indeed still the prescribed penalty for treason (and would remain so for the most serious offences until 1870, although the Newport Chartists were the last to actually receive the sentence), this barbaric punishment had not actually been carried out since the 17th century. By the 19th century the condemned person was hanged until dead and the head then symbolically severed by a surgeon. Nobody, least of all Lord Melbourne, would have believed in 1839 that the full punishment was going to be carried out, but they all talk as though they expect it to be.

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Factual error: The DI refers to the local policeman as "Officer" Fuller. No British police officer would use this term to refer to another British police officer. She'd have said Constable Fuller or PC Fuller.

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The Queen's Husband - S1-E6

Factual error: Victoria and Albert receive a wedding present from the Lord Mayor of Leicester. The Mayor of Leicester did not receive Lord Mayor status until 1928.

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