Hard Times - S1-E3
Corrected entry: In the scene in the church, set during World War 2, Aziraphale tells the two German spies that, upon their arrest, they will spend "the rest of the war behind bars." As a millennia old angel surely Aziraphale must be aware that, without exception, Nazi spies arrested in the UK during World War 2 were shot?
Hard Times - S1-E3
Corrected entry: Aziraphale cites the only prophecy from Agnes Nutter that he could find as one for 1972, "do not buy Betamax" (a reference to the home video format war). Betamax was only launched in 1975 starting in Japan, so this advice should have been for then, not 1972. These prophecies were completely, even ludicrously accurate, so that excludes any explanation that she was simply a few years off, because she was never wrong. (00:19:10)
Correction: Nothing wrong with warning people in advance.
That's what prophecies are for, you say? True, for all of them. But if they come with a specific year and are infallible, then this one is a mistake.
Correction: Aziraphale is not quoting from The Book, but an extract from a publisher's catalogue, and as a (newly) published author, I can tell you they are rotten with misquotes and other inaccurate information.
It's probably true in your case, but this was a few hundred years earlier? And she would have corrected the proofs, surely? Besides, I don't think the makers deliberately planned this (adding a misprint for more realism).
Corrected entry: Crowley's car has a CD player: a Pioneer DEH-X1790UB, even in the 1991 sequence. It has front USB and the manual is dated 2014 - not fitting the time period.
Correction: As noted on another entry, no part of this episode takes place in 1991. Adam was born around 2008 and most of the series takes place in the modern day. If the USB port and manual are visible in any of the flashbacks, please specify where.
It's there too in the flashbacks, sometimes more, sometimes less visible; but if the story were not dated, as some claim, then no, in that case it wouldn't be a mistake. (I specifically recall a caption with a date in line with the original story, by the way..).
If you can provide the time/scene when that caption is displayed, please do.
Corrected entry: When War arrives at the cafe to meet the others, she's the first one, and we see her bike alone outside. The others get there, then when Pollution asks after Death, we see his bike outside, parked to the right of War's. It's revealed that he was already there playing the quiz machine, and he's been in shot the whole time, but that means his bike should have already been there too. Even if it was somehow out of shot, War would have seen it.
Correction: Or alternatively, the bike didn't appear until the others have already arrived. Death is a supernatural being who has already been established as not being bound by the same physical limitations as the other Horsemen. Obviously, the bike is not something he purchased but was called into existence when needed.
Agreed. Terry Pratchett had previously written about magical things that don't just suddenly appear, but suddenly appear so that they have always been there. Obviously this is not explicitly said on screen so it's up to you if it's still a mistake in story telling but it works as a kind of comedy fantasy logic.
Her bike is at the lower edge of the shot. Another bike could have been parked out of frame. Although she would have seen it.
Corrected entry: Crowley boasts to the other demons about having disrupted the mobile telephone network (causing millions of people irritation and so serving the cause of hell). But in 1991, very few people would have been affected - only very few people had mobile phones for work. (In The Book he caused a traffic jam).
Correction: The series isn't set in 1991 - it's kept deliberately vague as to exactly when the setting is, but clearly modern enough for the mobile phone network to be an annoyance if disrupted.
Doesn't it say 1991 in the captions then, or anywhere else? But Bush senior is president when the ambassador's wife is giving birth. Briefly mentioned and shown during the video conference (which is another weird mistake).
The scene in which Crowley claims to have taken down the entire London-area mobile phone network is set 11 years before the events of the modern day sections of the show. The actor playing the president is simply credited as "George Bush" but does not specify which. It is more likely he is portraying George W Bush based on his appearance and the apparent time frame of the show (2008-2019).
Also, the voice is supposed to be George W's. His father had a very distinct and very different way of speaking.
11 years before 2002, which I think is given at some point in the first episode. So... 1991. Of course, this all doesn't fit very well; that's why it's a mistake.
I'm watching it now and it doesn't give a year at any point - just "eleven years ago" and then "the present day." The president is George W Bush given the distinct voice, plus the portable screen the Ambassador is using definitely isn't 1991 technology.
But Bush is in some places castlisted as GHW Bush, though. He's voiced by a GW Bush impersonator which perhaps throws people off the scent. (That last bit about the "1991 facetime" would have been yet another mistake - or rather, I'd suspect the mistake would be the contested caption containing a date).
The credits simply say "George Bush" - any other cast lists are third-party and can't be taken as accurate. So either the mistakes are the video call, and the wrong president, and the phone network, OR none of those are mistakes because there's no date given, and all of them line up perfectly with being set in 2008.
Actually a date can be inferred from episode 2, based on the burning of the witch + "350-odd"/about 360 years (difference on account of the flashback). So okay, it's the last days of Dubya then... Funny how many landlines they are still using then, though.
I don't think it's a mistake. While never explicitly stated, it is continuously implied that the series doesn't take place in the 1990s like the books, but in our present day England. As others pointed it out, if we subtract 11 years from 2019 to get Adam's birth year, that's 2008, when George W. Bush was still in office, videoconferencing was already a thing and Crowley could have taken the phone lines down.
Correction: Not unless he was psychic. During World War 2 the news media was rigidly censored and no reports of the arrest, courts martial and execution of German spies were published. Obviously Aziraphale knows there are German spies in England - he is talking to three of them - but he does not necessarily know what will happen to them if they are arrested.
As well as that, many spies were hanged, not shot. Obviously Aziraphale doesn't know that, either.
And anyway, Aziraphale has shown himself to be remarkably naive and even purposely ignorant at times. I think he would intentionally choose to believe that they are simply going to prison.