Other mistake: Dinner is said to be at 9:00 pm, with guests arriving at 8:00-ish for cocktails. But the 2 old ladies come downstairs, and say "good morning." Then, the Major goes out to play golf. Finally, Basil's wife and Audrey go out for golf. Is it morning, afternoon, or night?
Gourmet Night (a.k.a. Gourmet's Paradise) - S1-E5
Revealing mistake: When the Colonel first meets Basil, the same shot is used twice of the Colonel twitching.
Visible crew/equipment: At the end of the episode where everyone is cleaning up, there is a shadow of the boom mic on the wall. (00:29:05)
The Builders - S1-E2
Deliberate mistake: When Basil is arguing with Polly and eventually decides to call O'Reilly, he trips over the gnome. However when we see Basil come out from behind the desk, he takes the gnome out of a side gap in the desk, perfectly out of reach of Basil tripping over it. (00:14:30)
Gourmet Night (a.k.a. Gourmet's Paradise) - S1-E5
Audio problem: In the first scene when Basil is trying to repair his car, when he tries to start the engine, the engine sounds are totally out of sync with Basil turning the ignition key. (00:00:05)
Gourmet Night (a.k.a. Gourmet's Paradise) - S1-E5
Continuity mistake: There appears to be a very obvious splice edit in this episode. When Basil manages to get Kurt off him after being pinned to the kitchen table, he pushes Kurt against the wall knocking him out. Before this Basil is lying flat on the table and we never see him get up to a standing position beforehand.
Gourmet Night (a.k.a. Gourmet's Paradise) - S1-E5
Continuity mistake: When Basil goes to fetch the branch to give the car a thrashing after it breaks down, the car manages to move onto the pavement all by itself.
The Germans - S1-E6
Revealing mistake: When Basil is turning the fire alarm on and off, he puts the key next to the red box and turns it. However, there isn't a slot for the key to actually go in; he's just holding it close and turning it.
The Builders - S1-E2
Continuity mistake: When Sybil catches Basil with the closed-off dining room and they start an argument, the door to the rooms upstairs is closed, two shots later it is open, but nobody came or went that way during their conversation.
Gourmet Night (a.k.a. Gourmet's Paradise) - S1-E5
Revealing mistake: When Basil is out of the car and shouting at it after its final breakdown, you can see a crew member reflected in the right hand side of the windscreen giving John Cleese cues. It's not Cleese himself, as the reflection remains after he runs out of shot to get the tree branch, and the reflection doesn't mimic every action performed on screen.
Gourmet Night (a.k.a. Gourmet's Paradise) - S1-E5
Visible crew/equipment: When Basil runs to change the menu and Sybil says "why?" you can see a shadow of the boom on the pigeon holes at the side.
Gourmet Night (a.k.a. Gourmet's Paradise) - S1-E5
Continuity mistake: When Basil is driving home the second time, he is turning into a street where a van is parked. When he turns the street is dry. In the next scene where he is backing away from the van, the street is all wet.
The Germans - S1-E6
Audio problem: When Basil has lost the key to the fire alarm he decides to throw the typewriter at it. The typewriter sound hitting the (hidden) floor is a sort of scraping sound. Surely the typewriter would have crashed down or smashed.
Gourmet Night (a.k.a. Gourmet's Paradise) - S1-E5
Continuity mistake: When Basil's car breaks down for the final time after reversing away from the van, watch closely on the garden path of the house right next to the car. The garden gate is open, and you can see it swing shut (look at the black shape just above the hedge) just as Basil says "One, two three." The gate was shut when he first reversed around the corner, but was open again after the shot cuts back to the car (after it's moved to the right along the pavement).
The Germans - S1-E6
Deliberate mistake: When Basil asks Manuel to pull the hose on the fire extinguisher, the top of the hose falls off easily, resulting Basil to be squirted in the face. The bit where the hose is attached to squirts water out diagonally, but this would cause water not to go down the hose. This fire extinguisher was especially constructed to make sure the water was directed at Basil's face.
The Germans - S1-E6
Visible crew/equipment: When Basil runs from the restaurant and into the office, as the door opens to the hallway you can see a monitor in the office, showing what we can see. The director must be watching the action from in there.
The Germans - S1-E6
Audio problem: When Basil claps at the end of the opening hospital scene, the sound happens just before he actually claps.
Gourmet Night (a.k.a. Gourmet's Paradise) - S1-E5
Visible crew/equipment: Just after Basil gets the duck from Andre, he tells Manuel to get the trolley. Basil then walks into the door, and the duck goes flying. You can briefly see the arm of the crewman holding the door closed. A few seconds later, Manuel comes through the door and stands on the duck. For about 5 seconds you can see the crewman's face.
Continuity mistake: When Basil brings in Lord Melbury's cases, they swap hands between the exterior and interior shots. (00:14:20)
Communication Problems (a.k.a. Theft) - S2-E1
Plot hole: Basil torments Mrs. Richards by miming when he is speaking to her, so she will think her hearing aid has failed. However, she speaks twice during the scene, and she would hear herself - obviously - and would know that he was trying to fool her.
Suggested correction: Most places like this are likely to have CCTV and the office would be the optimum place for the manager to watch on the monitor.
CCTV was very uncommon in 1975. It wasn't until the late 80s it became more popular and even then it was of poor quality. Not like what is in the mistake.
Ssiscool ★