Episode #1.4 - S1-E4
Continuity mistake: An outside shot of the shack on the beach has louvre doors with glass on the right middle door and louvres on the left. As Ben Miller closes the doors, the inside shot has glass in the middle of both doors. (00:28:00)
Episode #1.4 - S1-E4
Other mistake: The body has been completely immersed in the ocean, but it has streams of dried blood on the skin. Moreover, everyone talks about two shots and two wounds, one being a grazing shot that hit him on the left temple, but he has an unexplained gash to the right temple too. (00:14:30)
Episode #1.4 - S1-E4
Continuity mistake: When Richard and the others get back to the police station after accompanying Mrs. Talbot to check her husband's body (or lack thereof), there's a cut to the jigsaw puzzle; it is recycled from the opening of the episode, because the shadows (including those cast by the window bars) are exactly the same. (00:00:10 - 00:06:20)
Episode #1.4 - S1-E4
Other mistake: Fidel reports to his boss, at the station, that the Knights are preparing to leave their house, and Astrid is in fact wheeling the trolley and carrying bags. Somehow, Richard and the others arrive in their Defender before the two have loaded their luggage. Is the police station in their backyard? (00:40:10)
Episode #1.4 - S1-E4
Continuity mistake: Towards the end of the episode it is declared that the visit at the Knights' house happened just before 9:30. The light during the entire episode (the part referring to the first day, at least) is not consistent at all; when they go check the body in the prologue, the beach is sunlit like it's noon, while after the opening looks more like early morning.
Episode #1.4 - S1-E4
Other mistake: When finally Richard gets the inspiration to crack the case, he grabs the evidence bag with the phone. The label on the bag says it was processed on 2/4/2011, in contrast with the security camera video date, 3/7/2011 (not to mention Richard's alarm clock in the previous episode, 7/2). (00:40:25)
Episode #1.4 - S1-E4
Continuity mistake: Richard retrieves the bag with the turtle eggs. In close-up the bag opens with the lid towards the left (his right). When he closes it, he closes it from the right (his left). (00:34:20)
Episode #1.4 - S1-E4
Continuity mistake: During the stakeout, Fidel is eating with a plastic fork. Dwayne starts the engine up, and during the various cuts, Fidel is not holding the fork, he is, he isn't. (00:30:30)
Episode #1.4 - S1-E4
Continuity mistake: Throughout the crab-based lunch, multiple times Camille's hands are raised to munch seafood, or lowered. Example at the very end, when she is nomming her crab seen from behind, but in the front view she is holding the case file. (00:23:30)
Episode #1.4 - S1-E4
Continuity mistake: When Richard says "I feel like Poseidon himself", Pierre has his hand on the back of his chair. He removed it in the previous shot. (00:22:55)
Episode #1.4 - S1-E4
Continuity mistake: When Richard asks Camille if there's any statement on record from the restaurant staff, in one shot Sara Martins is holding the bottle by the belly, in the reverse by the neck. (00:19:55)
Episode #1.4 - S1-E4
Continuity mistake: Richard reminds everyone that Patrick Knight was belligerent the night before. He puts his flat hand on the table. They ask him "So?" and in the next shot he's talking with the teaspoon in hand. (00:18:45)
Episode #1.4 - S1-E4
Continuity mistake: At the bar, Camille reminds Richard that he said that Megan must have been in shock. In foreground, she has her left fist in front of her mouth. Richard shrugs, and in the next shot, Camille lowers...her right fist. (00:18:30)
Episode #1.4 - S1-E4
Continuity mistake: Richard fills a glass with water and walks to his puzzle. Camille adds something, and within a cut his arm goes from an ascending to a descending motion without any time for him to drink in between. (00:17:20)
Episode #1.4 - S1-E4
Continuity mistake: The police crew is having beers to celebrate the alleged resolution of the case, but Richard is not convinced. During the scene, the beer bottles change position between shots - for instance when Fidel says "Maybe she was confused" he puts his hands on the bottle of Etensel, gone in the next shot with Camille piling on his objection - and in that shot even his hat on the table is facing the other way. In fact, throughout the scene his hat keeps rotating to different directions. (00:18:20)
Episode #1.4 - S1-E4
Continuity mistake: Before he leaves with the suspect the house she is a guest in, Richard asks if they own a gun. Astrid answers "Of course we don't", both hands on her belly. Wider angle, and she has both arms relaxed down her sides. (00:12:15)
Episode #1.4 - S1-E4
Continuity mistake: Megan grabs DI Richard Poole's hand sobbing "I'm scared." We're talking about her left hand, because in the right hand she's holding the handkerchief he gave her. When DS Camille Bordey butts in, she is clinging to his hand with her right, and holds the hankie in her left. It keeps happening even during the conversation. (00:03:55)
Episode #1.4 - S1-E4
Continuity mistake: Richard asks the wife if it was unusual for the husband to get violent. She starts crying. Embarrassed, he hands her a handkerchief. When she is still seen from behind, notice her right arm; she lowers it, but in the next shot she is still sobbing in the theatrical pose she had before, hand on her forehead. (00:03:40)
Episode #1.4 - S1-E4
Continuity mistake: Poole and Camille take the confessed murderer to the beach. She is fainting, and Richard tells her "It's OK, it's OK." Camille is supporting her with one hand behind her back, which becomes one hand on her forearm in the reverse shot. (00:01:30)
Episode #1.4 - S1-E4
Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the episode, Richard stirs his cup of tea with a spoon; in the close-up of the puzzle board the cup is still on the table, but in the frontal views he is reaching for it and putting the spoon in before the cut, and he has it in hand in the one after. (00:00:15)
Answer: There's probably no particular reason. Sets and props on long-running TV shows often change as needed and for various reasons throughout a series run.
raywest ★