Episode #4.5 - S4-E5
Continuity mistake: Before the phone rings, the new DS asks "And you?" to the goofy inspector, who is rubbing his foot with his wet sock in the left hand. Cut, and he's rubbing it with both hands all of a sudden. Florence's hands also equally suddenly go from above to below the belt. (00:04:30)
Episode #4.5 - S4-E5
Continuity mistake: When DI Humphrey Goodman holds the broken pin in the tweezers, the pin is held vertically in Kris Marshall's frontal shots, but horizontal in the other angle. (00:07:35)
Episode #4.5 - S4-E5
Continuity mistake: Throughout the whole first interview with the band, the pretentious guitarist, co-songwriter and whatnot (Pete Thunders) keeps having different positions leaning against the door or not, and his beer bottle switches hand repeatedly for no reason. If sometimes that is technically possible (but unlikely) due to brief cutaway shots, other times it is not (such as when Vince Thuram says "this is my place). (00:09:00)
Episode #4.5 - S4-E5
Continuity mistake: Introducing the various members of the music crew, Florence asks who the last member is. Vince Thuram, the producer, answers, but in the meantime there's been a cut, and the manager who had both hands in her lap, is now sitting with one hand behind, on the pillow. (00:09:55)
Episode #4.5 - S4-E5
Continuity mistake: To round up the first interview, Humphrey gets up and asks where everyone was when the death occurred. In the wider angle he is holding the slip of paper in hand, which he didn't have standing up. (00:11:25)
Episode #4.5 - S4-E5
Continuity mistake: When Dwayne says that due to the fence, the only way in is through the villa, Goodman has suddenly the hand in his pocket in the cut mid-sentence. (00:11:50)
Episode #4.5 - S4-E5
Continuity mistake: After checking out the planters, Humphrey walks along the pool saying the killer "covered their tracks by staging the scene", and goes on through an editing cut. Florence had both hands together in the first shot, in the second she's listening with her hand under her chin. (00:12:25)
Episode #4.5 - S4-E5
Factual error: Humphrey mentions that the fire that destroyed the recording studio happened in July 1991. The first page of the Saint Marie Times carrying the news though has Thursday 12th as a date; in July 1991, the 12th was a Friday. (00:16:25 - 00:16:55)
Episode #4.5 - S4-E5
Revealing mistake: Florence prints the first page from the Saint Marie newspaper, from a generic "Thursday 12th"; the whole first page is taken by the news of the fire destroying the recording studio...but half of the article talks about "the world's largest message in a bottle", instead. (00:16:25)
Episode #4.5 - S4-E5
Continuity mistake: JP shows Goodman what he found; in the cut before the moment he presses the button. Humphrey suddenly has his fingers touching his lips, while he had both hands down an instant before. (00:19:55)
Episode #4.5 - S4-E5
Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the scene with Pete Thunders in a bar - when they ask him about the loss caused by the sponsor defamation - a guy in a yellow tee walks out of the bar. At the end of the scene, when Florence gets a phone call, the same guy makes his exit stage right again. (00:21:45 - 00:23:30)
Episode #4.5 - S4-E5
Continuity mistake: During the scene with the guitarist in the bar, his glass is more full or less full between shots - easy to tell when in some shots the ice cubes pop on the surface and in others they have melted completely. (00:22:25)
Episode #4.5 - S4-E5
Continuity mistake: At the Bullet Bar, JP tells Dwayne he's not a big drinker. He has his thumbpad on the edge of the glass in great evidence in the first and third shot, and lower in the intermediate one. (00:27:05)
Episode #4.5 - S4-E5
Continuity mistake: Humphrey is holding the copy of the artwork of the reissued album. Overwhelmed by his staff's objections, he goes to his desk and crashes in his chair. His hand is on the shorter, longer, shorter side of the paper sheet, a change for each cut. (00:35:40)
Episode #4.5 - S4-E5
Continuity mistake: When Daisy Buttercup tells the investigators that Stevie ended the relationship, she plays with his necklace in the front views using both hands - but just one hand as in the rest of the scene when she is from 3/4 behind. (00:38:45)
Episode #4.6 - S4-E6
Continuity mistake: In the establishing shot of the serve of the matchpoint, the corner of the field is free from shadows and the people standing in the opposite corner cast long shadows. In the following shots, both these conditions change. (00:00:20)
Episode #4.6 - S4-E6
Continuity mistake: The coach of the winning duo looks in the distance at the other volley players leaving. His glass is noticeably fuller in the slightly out of focus reverse shot. (00:02:30)
Episode #4.6 - S4-E6
Continuity mistake: The victim is discovered. She is holding her phone in close-up in a direction that seconds the fingers, but in the aerial shot the phone comes in from the opposite direction, left to right. (00:04:25)
Episode #4.6 - S4-E6
Continuity mistake: First shot right after the opening theme; Dwayne is holding the Saint Marie Times and his hand is on the box above what we see in close-up is an article about the recession. In that close-up though, his hand is much, much lower on the page. (00:05:00)
Episode #4.6 - S4-E6
Revealing mistake: Florence passes a mug of coffee to her boss, who goes on to sit in his chair and have a tragic overacting accident. However, when things were still normal and he merely approached the desk, you could see Florence already stop drinking and frown preoccupied before anything bad happened. (00:06:10)
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 ★