Throughout the series, you can see some houses with satellite dishes. They did not have satellite dishes in 1973. [It is implied that Tyler is dreaming, and is not really in 1973.]
Great sites
Mistakes
When in the mortuary looking at the female murder victim's body, watch as Sam Tyler says "cord, no other attack marks". When the camera cuts to the corpse at this very moment, you can briefly see the "corpse" swallowing. See more...
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. See more...
Life on Mars (2006) - 11 corrections
Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. As such, any aggressive/abusive corrections (and I get quite a few) written as if they're comments I've made myself will be ignored. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click the edit icon under an entry, then choose "correct entry". Some entries have "duplicated entry" after them - these are entries which were already listed on the main page, but were submitted again. I occasionally leave these online for a while, just in case they were moved in error, so don't worry about pointing them out to me.
Across whole show
Throughout the series, you can see some houses with satellite dishes. They did not have satellite dishes in 1973. [It is implied that Tyler is dreaming, and is not really in 1973.]
The Ford Cortina used by Gene Hunt has obviously been modified after 1973 as the dashboard fitted to it is from a Cortina mark 4 which started production in 1976 it has a GXL badge on the grille which is correct as this was the top of the range model in the early seventies. But the E badge on the roof pillars and the 2000E badge on the boot are from the later 2000E model which replaced the GXL. [This car 1s in fact a 1975 cortina 2000E converted to a 1972 GXL model.]
Women officers in 1973 were known as PWs (Police Woman) and not WPCs (Woman Police Constable). So Annie should have been referred to as PW Cartwright.not WPC Cartwright. The term WPC did not occur until the Equal Opportunities Act in 1975, which among other things re-defined the role and position of women officers in the Police. [At the time of writing we don't know if Sam Tyler has gone back in time or is in a coma/insane and imagining everything; if he is imagining it all it's not inconceivable that he would get some details wrong. The company that makes this series meticulously researches aspects of the show and although certain things slip through, some "mistakes" have been left in, in order to guide the viewer as to what is happening to Sam.]
When Sam arrives at the hospital, the Bedford ambulance parked in the entrance is a late seventies model. [As Sam was in a coma all the time this is probably due to Sam's memory.]
In Season 2, Episode 3, Sam refers to Chunky Kit Kat chocolate bars. Kit Kats had been around since the mid-1930s, but the Chunky Kit Kat would not appear until 1999, well after the 1973 period in which this show is set. [Sam, however, comes from the present day, so would know about them.]
Corrected by Tailkinker
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. [Just because you'd do something different to the way the characters did it doesn't make it a plot hole.]
Episode 4 (series 1)
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. [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.]
Episode 1 (series 1)
When Sam Tyler first gets out of his Jeep Cherokee, you can see a blue car coming towards him. By the time the camera cuts back to a birds-eye view, the blue car is gone. We don't see it pass, and there is not enough time elapsed for it to have passed. [This blue car is the very car that runs Sam over just a few seconds into the next shot, back at ground level, looking at Sam through his own vehicle's interior. That is why we don't see it pass.]
The Ford Zephyr police car has a G registration, which means it was first registered between August 1968 and July 1969. This car is a Mark 3 model, which ceased production in 1966, so the latest registration letter it should have is D. This programme is set in 1973, even then I don't think the police would be using such an old car. [The police got quite attached to certain cars that perform well for them, and when a car is about to be stopped being manufactured, the various Police forces will buy up a load of them for use, but they won't necessarily be registered right away, hence the late 'G' reg. Also back in the 60's and 70's, Police forces didn't have a 3 year/ 150,000 mileage retirement on the cars either, so there would have been no reason why that car couldn't still be in use in '73.]
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". [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.]
Corrected by Tailkinker
All of series 1 (series 1)
Some of the houses have double glazing even though this would not have been available in 1973. [Rubbish, my parents' house, built in the late sixties, has always had double glazing.]
Corrected by umathegreatstationarybear
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