Ruddy Gore - S1-E6
Factual error: Phryne and Dot are sitting at the dining room table looking over a collection of paperback books. Paperback books only came into being in 1936. It took time for books to appear globally in that format.
Factual error: The whole Egyptian mythos and references are incredibly sketchy: at first it is said that Foyle was born "on the 21st day of Proyet." Leaving aside the fact that Proyet is a season rather than a month and that it simply would not translate automatically into a matching month and day of the Gregorian calendar, it still wouldn't be the 21st of December as stated because Proyet fell rather in a January to May range. Not just that, but in the second half of the episode it's simply identified as "Midsummer", when Proyet was part of Winter and obviously seasons in Australia are the polar opposites of seasons in Egypt.
Factual error: Ignoring the fact that there was no such Pharaoh as "Memses", in the cabinet inventory the missing item is listed as follows: "'Silver stirrup ring, in the reign of King Memses, Dynasty Five, 2600 BC." If it were 2600 BC, it would be Dynasty Three maybe, but not Five, which started just past 2500.
Factual error: When Miss Charlesworth asks where everybody has gone and Letitia answers, you can get a good view of her desk, sporting above it amongst many photos also an illustration surely out of place in 1928: the "We can do it!" girl created by J. Howard Miller in 1942 and more or less apocryphally identified with Rosie the Riveter, a feminist icon that is quite specific to WW2. (00:22:10)
Factual error: Miss Fisher wakes up at her usual time (not quite cockcrow), receives from Dot the news of the death of her friend, that she heard on the radio, makes her way to the crime scene, and finds there Jack, who is just at that time closing the victim's eyelids. A little strange gesture to be performed, hours after death. Unlikely to work with rigor mortis, too. (00:03:15)
Factual error: Behind Jack and Miss Fisher as they are waiting to get an answer about the whereabouts of Jane's mother there's a wall calendar that has November 4 as a Tuesday - wrong for 1928, and also inconsistent with the other calendar seen in the episode, in the kitchen. (00:43:00)
Murder in Montparnasse - S1-E7
Factual error: During scenes in the kitchen (when Bert and Cec hire Miss Fisher; when Butler the butler advises Dot about dealing with the hypocrite priest) a wall calendar is featured. It's nice that it shows the month of October, consistent with the continuity of the season, but it's not an October 1928 calendar, the days are all wrong. (00:21:25 - 00:27:15)
Ruddy Gore - S1-E6
Factual error: Miss Fisher and Dot browse several issues of Table Talk, an actual Australian publication from the era depicted, and with the exact same font for the header. The cover layout is not at all like the original (it's contemporary and sexier) and they obviously glued newly printed covers to modern paperback magazines, because the actual Table Talk had very limited foliage (around 24 pages) while the magazines shown here are one inch thick. Moreover, a "June 15 1908" edition is mentioned, which was a Monday. Table Talk was a Thursday magazine.
Factual error: Miss Fisher and the crew on 21 December 1928 dance to the glorious rendition of "I'm Sailing On A Sunbeam" by Des Tooley featuring Frank Coughlan, playing a record that was released only in 1930.
Factual error: At the police station, as Miss Fisher hands the food basket to Jack to walk away with Dot, a wall calendar indicating the episode as taking place on August 11, Thursday. The established year is 1928, so it should be a Saturday. (00:22:30)
Factual error: When Miss Fisher takes the teacup from Hugh to bring it to the housekeeper, she passes by the calendar. It shows December 17 as being a Saturday, not consistent with the year of the show. (00:30:55)
Factual error: When Mr. Butler takes the hashish-laced cake, "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) " is playing, composed in 1931, later than the 1928 setting.
Factual error: When the compromising pictures of the lovers in bed are shown, it's also shown that some are taken in rapid succession, with Charles noticing, covering up, charging at the camera. All this quickfire shutter action would be really too much advanced paparazzi tech for the 20s! In the same episode Miss Fisher gets her mugshot taken and it's taken with a big and clunky camera. (00:20:00)
Factual error: At the beginning, Charles is trying to sell his airplane to Miss Fisher: he calls it a "Tiger Moth." The series is set in the 20s, and he should have simply said a "de Havilland Moth", which were the most popular recreational aircraft of the decade. The Tiger Moth though came out in 1931, making its mention an impossibility. (when we see the plane, it's a model manufactured in 1942, going by its registration number).
Factual error: The calendar behind Hugh when Dot restores the beer coaster points at November, consistent with the pacing of the show. It's not a November 1928 calendar, though, the first day should have been a Thursday. (00:24:00)
Factual error: The very opening shot of the episode features by the clock a big red book titled "Otley Pursued." By Martin Waddell, the book was published in 1967, making its appearance in a series set in 1928.
Murder on the Ballarat Train - S1-E2
Factual error: The series is set in the late 20s, but in the restaurant car Eunice is reading "Bandit Love" by Juanita Savage, first published in 1931. (00:05:10)
Factual error: Looking at the lending list card, we see that Saul returned the book on the 26th of August 1928, a Sunday (when we assume the privately owned store would be closed), and more importantly, that his last name changed: from Saul Michaels as he was mentioned in conversation, to Saul Abrahams as it is written on the card. (00:13:05)
Answer: Louisa's watch was broken during the struggle to get away from her attacker.
Bishop73