When we first see Morse, he is typing a document. The camera shows a close-up of the page as he types the word "tender". The centre of each letter is fuzzy, as if the ribbon is being pressed onto the paper even by the hollows of the letters, and there is a ghost image of each letter, as if the type bars have bounced on the paper and made a second impression close to the first one. However when Morse then rolls the page a few inches out of the typewriter and we see the sentences that he has been typing, these blemishes are not present.
Mary Tremlett's death is put at 8:16(pm) Saturday because a watch was found with its face smashed - however when DS Lott holds the watch up to examine it the watch is showing a time of 10:05. To be fair you can only really see this if it's "paused" on a DVD.
In the opening scene the announcer on the vet's radio is heard to say "Good morning, everyone. It's six o'clock on Sunday morning and the BBC Light Programme is beginning another day's broadcasting." This would not have been possible as the earliest Sunday broadcasting started in 1964-65 was 06:55 with 'The First Day of the Week'.
Later at the police station the vet says, in error, that he was listening to the Home Service. However even had he been correct it would have been no better as the Home Service of the period opened with 'Sunday Reading' at 07:50.
Later at the police station the vet says, in error, that he was listening to the Home Service. However even had he been correct it would have been no better as the Home Service of the period opened with 'Sunday Reading' at 07:50.
When DC McLeash comes into Morse's room to invite him for a drink, he switches Morse's record-player off at the mains switch to get his attention. When McLeash has finished talking to Morse, he switches it back on again and it carries on playing immediately, exactly where it left off. This would not happen with a record-player. At the very least the pitch would increase as the record got up to speed; in addition, if it was a valve rather than transistor amplifier there would be a delay while the valve filaments warmed up again.
Three-point shoulder harnesses were visible in the Jaguar(s). The period is 1965 (see a decal on the Jaguar). This type of seat belts were not used until much later.
At the end of the film, as Morse stops the car at the traffic lights, we see his left hand move from the steering wheel to the gear lever area to the left of the driver's seat, and we hear the distinctive sound of a handbrake ratchet. However in a Mk I Jaguar, the handbrake is located on the floor between the driver's door and the driver's seat - on the driver's right in a right-hand-drive car.
In the opening scenes when Richard Lovell is playing Backgammon, & appears to win by rolling a double four, in the close-up only ten of his men have been removed from the board. Each player has fifteen & all of them must be borne off in order to win the game.
When they first meet, Dr. DeBryn greets Morse with "You are whom?" when he should have said "You are who?". An educated doctor working in Oxford in the 1960's would most likely know not to use the word "whom" as the subject of a sentence.
A radio broadcast refers to a manuscript being "gifted" to the Bodleian Library. The use of "gift" as a verb did not become widespread until several decades later. The correct word would be "donated".
The story is set in 1965, but the row of cars shown parked outside Oxford when Morse is explaining how the murder was committed includes a blue Series 2 E-Type Jaguar - the uncovered headlamps and wide front grille can clearly be seen - which would not have been made until 1969 at the earliest. The car is fitted with a fake A-suffix number plate, denoting 1963 as the apparent year of registration.
In the final scene when Morse looks in the rear-view mirror and sees his older self (as played by John Thaw), a diesel (long-nose) Ford Transit pick-up is behind him. This has a pre-1963 (no year letter) registration. However the Transit was not produced until 1965.
When Morse first admires what will later become his own Jaguar MkII, the dealer, Teddy Samuels, says it's "nine months old, and 3000 on the clock" but the registration is 248 RPA, indicating it was registered before January 1963. Later in the same episode, we see Morse driving Thursday's car, a black Jaguar MKI, with a tax disk displayed valid until December 1965, so either Samuels was lying, or the props department got their dates mixed up.
Early in the story, Morse is told to go and interview a witness in Jericho, which is a suburb of Oxford. However, in the next scene we see him knocking on a door near Oriel College in the centre of the city asking to see the witness.
Early on, Dempsey is shown developing photographs in a dark room and smoking. Nobody would ever do that as some of the chemicals involved are both volatile and flammable.