Life on Mars

Life on Mars (2006)

27 corrected entries

(5 votes)

Episode 1 - S1-E1

Corrected entry: After Sam wakes up on the building site, the Police Constable replies sarcastically, "You were driving a military vehicle", when Sam claims the car isn't his, and that he was driving a jeep. This isn't strictly true - the Range Rover went into production in 1970, and the Land Rover Defender into production during the 1940's, so it's not implausible that Sam Tyler could have owned/been driving a "jeep".

UKFilmFan

Correction: Nobody in the UK would ever refer to a Land Rover or Range Rover as a jeep. Even these days Jeeps are not common in the UK; in the timeframe of the series privately owned Jeeps would be practically unheard of and nearly everybody would still associate Jeeps with the military. What the policeman says is hardly unreasonable.

Tailkinker

Show generally

Corrected entry: Throughout the series, you can see some houses with satellite dishes. They did not have satellite dishes in 1973.

Correction: It is implied that Tyler is dreaming, and is not really in 1973.

Episode 5 - S1-E5

Corrected entry: The bicycle seen being ridden across the shot in the final scenes by a young girl is a Raleigh Wisp, which was a model introduced in 1983 so would not have been available at the time the drama is set - in 1973.

Correction: The series is NOT set in the 70's, merely an imitation of the 70's, a purgatory, so historical facts do not apply.

Episode 3 - S1-E3

Corrected entry: Sam conducted the taped interview, stating that it was 'Wednesday 16th March'. In 1973, 16 March was a Friday, not a Wednesday. However, 16 March was a Wednesday in 2005, the year the episode was written.

Correction: The series is not set in the actual 70's but a purgatory for dead or dying coppers meaning that it would not follow the exact timeline of the 70's.

Show generally

Corrected entry: In series two, episode two, why didn't they just pay Dickie Fingers a visit? That way he wouldn't have ended up on the mortuary slab, and any info he had could still have been put to use.

Correction: Just because you'd do something different to the way the characters did it doesn't make it a plot hole.

Episode 4 - S1-E4

Corrected entry: The episode has a specific date attached to it: 16th March 1973. Yet in the episode, Austin Allegro police "panda" cars can be seen. The Austin Allegro did not go on sale until 17th May 1973, exactly two months later.

Correction: In the series finale we discover that Sam's seventies world is in his imagination so this and many other mistakes will be due to Sam misremembering his childhood in this era.

Correction: Rubbish, my parents' house, built in the late sixties, has always had double glazing.

umathegreatstationarybear

More mistakes in Life on Mars

Trivia: Continual references are made to The Wizard of Oz. In Episode 1 of season 1, Tyler leaves the station with the intention of walking back to reality. He says to Cartwright that he is going to 'follow the yellow brick road'. In episode two, after the principal drama has resolved Tyler suggests to Hunt that his 'guv' transfer him back to the division he came from. Hunt obliges by picking up his phone and saying that the Wizard of Oz will sort it out 'because of the wonderful things he does'. Throughout the series Hunt insultingly refers to Tyler as 'Dorothy'. And in the final episode, the song 'Over The Rainbow' can be heard in the soundtrack. Furthermore, the character Frank Morgan has the same name as the actor who portrayed the Wizard of Oz, an acknowledged "humbug", in the 1939 film.

More trivia for Life on Mars

Show generally

Question: When Sam reads someone their rights why does someone else tell him he's saying it wrong? This happens few times in different episodes.

strikeand

Chosen answer: Sam is using the modern wording of the right-to-silence caution prescribed by legislation such as the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. In the 1970s, the wording would have been different, if it was used at all.

Sierra1

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