The Sweeney

The Sweeney (1975)

98 mistakes - chronological order

(5 votes)

Sweet Smell of Succession - S3-E8

Revealing mistake: After the car chase, when the Jaguar crashes and the driver gets out you can see that the Jag's drivers seat is fitted with a motor racing harness instead of the normal road seat belt for the stunt.

Sweet Smell of Succession - S3-E8

Revealing mistake: When Tarley is hitting Arlene in the face you can see that his hand passes in front of Arlene's face, not actually hitting her, and when he hits her the third time, Arlene reacts too soon and moves her head before she is hit.

Down to You, Brother - S3-E9

Continuity mistake: When Meadows is riding in his Rolls Royce he gives his driver some money to buy a present, the Rolls is about to pass two parked cars - a yellow Daf and a blue Maxi - at the end of this scene the Rolls passes the same two parked cars a second time.

Pay Off - S3-E10

Continuity mistake: After the shootout at the quarry when the squad go back to their vehicles, some of the vehicles have changed location from where they were parked when they arrived, and the white Ford Cortina has disappeared.

Loving Arms - S3-E11

Continuity mistake: When Regan and Carter search Blakeley's garage the squad car is parked to the left of the garage entrance, after they have returned to the car the shots from inside the car show it is parked across the garage entrance.

Loving Arms - S3-E11

Continuity mistake: When the squad car pulls up outside Blakeney's garage, in the shots outside the car there is a large space between the red mini parked behind, but in the shots inside the squad car the red mini is parked directly behind.

Lady Luck - S3-E12

Continuity mistake: The man who is robbed at the bookies arrives in a mauve Jaguar that he parks outside the shop, but a few moments earlier, when the robber is crossing the road to enter the shop, he passes the same mauve Jaguar, which is already parked outside the shop.

On the Run - S3-E13

Character mistake: When Mrs Haldane is giving her statement to Regan she tells him that Cook was wearing dark glasses when she saw him outside her neighbour's house, but Cook wasn't wearing any glasses.

On the Run - S3-E13

Continuity mistake: When Cook throws "Uncle" down the stairs and then out the window the actor playing "Uncle" has so obviously been replaced by a stunt double who has more hair of a darker colour than the actor.

On the Run - S3-E13

Continuity mistake: Carter arrives at the hotel to tell Regan about Cook escaping. Regan introduces his girlfriend to Carter as Pat Knightly, but later on when Regan phones the hotel to ask to speak to Miss Knightly Carter asks "is that Pat's name, 'Knightly'?"

On the Run - S3-E13

Visible crew/equipment: When Carter is talking to Pinder at the garage, you can see the reflection of the clapper board in the bodywork above the exhaust pipe of the car Pinder is working on.

On the Run - S3-E13

Continuity mistake: The fixture list on the inside wall of the cricket pavilion where Cook is hiding state the name of the club as Edgemere but when Regan and Carter are on surveillance in the scoring shed the name has changed to Edgebury.

Hard Men - S4-E2

Revealing mistake: When Freeth, Carter and Regan raid the flat, Freeth breaks the door down - the door starts to fall before Freeth hits it.

Hard Men - S4-E2

Continuity mistake: When Freeth and Gibson meet under the canal bridge a barge sails past them in the direction that carter is approaching from, but when the camera is on Carter the barge has disappeared .

Drag Act - S4-E3

Continuity mistake: In the final scene when the squad car passes the zebra crossing Julie is working on, there are no vehicles behind the squad car, but in the next shot of Julie on the crossing a lot of cars have suddenly appeared.

Drag Act - S4-E3

Continuity mistake: Julie Kingdom and Mike Seton are on the motorbike riding in the country lane. Julie drops the map, they stop further on down the lane, but when Julie gets off the bike to pick the map up, it is in the lane right behind them.

Drag Act - S4-E3

Factual error: The squad are following the stolen lorry when it suddenly reverses across the road, causing the squad to swerve up the kerb, ripping a front wheel off the squad car. Four hours later when the body of the murdered lorry driver is found, Regan and Carter arrive at the murder scene in the same squad car. It would take more than four hours to recover the car and repair that much damage.

Nightmare - S4-E5

Continuity mistake: In the yard behind the furniture shop when Regan and Carter are nearly crushed by the reversing van they escape by climbing up some old cabinets and then jumping on the van roof. Regan then jumps down on the bonnet before banging on the windscreen and having a go at the driver. Carter has disappeared when he should be visible on the van roof. Then when the Irish man comes out of the shop Carter has reappeared, climbing down from the roof to the bonnet of the van, also the two stunt doubles have darker hair than John Thaw and Dennis Waterman.

Trivia: The blue Ford Cortina squad car seen in series 1 and 2 has the reg number NHK 296M. Sometimes it is fitted with a false number DLO 97M on the front (as has been noted as a mistake). The programme makers had been supplied with two cars from Ford, this Cortina and a Consul GT. The Cortina was fitted with this false plate to make the squad look like it had more cars, and only one number plate (the white front one) was made up to keep costs down, as the Sweeney had a small budget. In the series 3 episode "Pay Off" DLO 97M is on a white Cortina, in series three the same Triumph 2000 is seen with number plates TPA 931N and UUV 931N - again it is the same car with different number plates.

eric 64

More trivia for The Sweeney

Hit and Run - S2-E5

Question: Towards the end of this episode the squad car has to double park so Regan can use a phone box, as Regan gets out of the car a van has to drive round the squad car and the driver sounds the horn, Regan gesticulates and shouts "up yours" at the van driver. I wonder if this was scripted or was a random moment and John Thaw was ad-libbing?

eric 64

Answer: Scripted.

More questions & answers from The Sweeney

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