Television and Film "mistakes"

[tbtc]

Following on from the "What are your favourite film or television scenes involving the railway??" thread (http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=30908), how about "mistakes" on screen?

For example, in the first episode of Gavin & Stacey, you see her going back to Wales from London Paddington. Except it looks suspiciously like Marylebone (which is presumably easier/ cheaper to film at)...

Similarly (on the subject of London termini), you see the Harry Potter kids outside St Pancras (rather than the less photogenic Kings Cross)

Some are simple mistakes (like producers not knowing the correct stock), some are deceptions and some are background details that they've not considered (e.g. there was an episode of Dr Who set around the 2012 Olympics where all the trains in the background looked *suspiciously* like diesel ones going into Cardiff, and not the EMUs you'd see around the Stratford area).

Any more?

 

[starrymarkb]

Dr Who is filmed in Cardiff by BBC Wales, I've seen the centre of Cardiff pretending to be somewhere more exotic on several occasions...

IIRC the Underground base with the Dalek in the first series was the bowels of the Millennium Stadium

 

[EM2]

There are *so* many...but just off the top of my head:
The Schools 4-4-0 that often appears in Heartbeat, which although now based at the NYMR, certainly wouldn't have hauled branch passenger trains in North Yorkshire in the mid-60s.
The new version of Reggie Perrin, which still used the lines like 'eleven minutes late, badger ate a signal cable at New Malden' from the original, except his commute was all filmed on Chiltern and arriving at Marylebone.
Paradox, the recent BBC drama, with a 3rd-rail EMU supposedly leaving Manchester Victoria.
The scene on the Underground in Patriot Games, with a train being announced as 'the next train on Platform 2 will call at...' with a full list of station stops, and three of those stops being on completely different Tube lines.

 

[Geezertronic]

Although it's not really a film mistake, JK Rowling apparently got the platform numbering mixed up at Kings Cross so Platform 9 3/4 could have been called something else if she had got it right?

 

[EM2]

Although it's not really a film mistake, JK Rowling apparently got the platform numbering mixed up at Kings Cross so Platform 9 3/4 could have been called something else if she had got it right?

Partly that, and partly that when she came to write the first book, she couldn't remember the station that her dad used to take her to, to see the steam trains. For some reason she thought it was King's Cross but was actually Euston

 

[tbtc]

Although it's not really a film mistake, JK Rowling apparently got the platform numbering mixed up at Kings Cross so Platform 9 3/4 could have been called something else if she had got it right?

Yeah, I heard that - the idea in the book was that it was a pillar between nine and ten (assuming that nine and ten share the same "pillars" , but the layout of the platform means that there are actually tracks inbetween nine and ten (correct me if I'm wrong here - I come in to St P these days so haven't used Kings Cross "overground" for a while)

I appreciate that "Nine and three quarters" sounds like a nice strange number; the downside/ upside is that there aren't kids running into the pillars/ taking pictures of it

 

[The Planner]

Layer Cake has one where one of the scousers comes down from Liverpool and arrives off an HST at Paddington.

 

[TGV]

I have to refer readers to the original thread for surely the most mistake-ridden railway scene in any movie - the "Channel Tunnel" scene from Mission: Impossible.

 

[tbtc]

I have to refer readers to the original thread for surely the most mistake-ridden railway scene in any movie - the "Channel Tunnel" scene from Mission: Impossible.

Correct - was anything accurate in that film?

 

[BOSCH]

May I refer readers to the film Quadrophenia,there is a scene in which our hero "Jimmy" aka Phil Daniels is lying in bed when his mum comes in and opens his bedroom curtains as she does so,in the distance you can see an Hst go by in the Blue/Grey livery now bearing in mind this film is set mid sixties !!! As an aside,when they rampage in Brighton,the litter bins show "Keep Britain Tidy",this campaign started 1971 !!

 

[Bill EWS]

In my opinion it isn't worth worring about TV & Film makers getting railways all wrong. The general public don't know any better or care, as a train is just a train. Most can't even differenciate between a train and a loco and I still hear people blaming BR for the present day troubles. It also indicates as to why we probably get the governments we deserve as many, far too many, believe everything they read, see and hear in the news media.

 

[the sniper]

All I'll say is, Michael Portillo's Great British Railway Journeys, where do you start...

 

[Oswyntail]

May I refer readers to the film Quadrophenia,....

Was it that film where the train arrived in "Brighton" (aka Paddington) hauled by a Hoover?
And one of my few moments of photographic fame came when i had a photo in "Modern Railways Pictorial" of a Class 310 at St Pancras being filmed because Michael Caine had to jump on and slam the door - forget the name of the film, though.

 

[swt_passenger]

Many people believe Bob Crow going on 'Have I got news for you' was a terrible mistake...

Paul

 

[ChrisCooper]

Any film set during the Second World War that features Mk1s. Bonus points if any London scenes feature Routemasters. On the same note, anything set in the present day that features Mk1s.
Some of the best ones are where trains change during journies. Not uncommon someone to board one type of train, have interior footage of another type, show external footage of another train on the move, and then normally back to the original one when they get off. Too many to list for that.

It would be funny is someone was making a comedy that featured trains (even if they wern't a big part of the plot) to have say someone getting on say a Pendolino from Euston to Manchester. It would then show onboard shots of them sitting in a Mk1 with some unconvincing scenary going by accompanied by steam train sound effects and jointed track. Dialogue would include talking about the progress of the journey, none of the places being anywhere between London and Manchester. During the journey there would a few cuts to external shots, with stock footage of various trains at various locations (but no Pendolinos or steam hauled Mk1s) and also model railways. Just to finish it off, on arriving at the destination it would show squeezing out of a narrow gauge train, oviously infront of a blue screen making it looks like Manchester Picadilly. Oh, and throw in a comment about "I'm sure these modern train's don't have as much legroom."

 

[WatcherZero]

He was so mauled by Hislop, hilarious.

 

[mrcheek]

Quite often, people over-analyse this stuff.

Ive read many critiques of The Cassandra Crossing, and how the loco changes from an electric to what is basically a shunter after Vienna.

But this is because UK tv normally shows an edited version. In the unedited version, the changing of the locos in Vienna is clearly shown!

That being said, there is also a scene where the overhead lines suddenly disappear, yet the electric loco somehow keeps going!

 

[robertclark125]

There was a bit on Playdays when they went on the Tyne and Wear Metro, and they were going from Ilford Road to Four Lane Ends. Thing is, said journey was via Gateshead, Central, and even Whitley Bay!

 

[Peter Mugridge]

#13, Oswyntail - would that film with Michael Caine have been "The Fourth Protocol"?

 

[LE Greys]

Some of my favourite scenes also involve mistakes, oddly. In The Ladykillers, the house is supposed to be over the top of Copenhagen Tunnel looking down on Belle Isle, But at one point it moves south of Euston Road, so we can see the front of King's Cross (complete with 'African Village'). There's also a POW film (can't remember the title) where various German locos are 'played' by LMS and Midland creations. Several scenes were shot inside Cricklewood shed and in Brent yards, which provide a wonderful look behind the scenes of London Midland Region (although everything was unrealistically clean and tidy for Germany in 1942). Also, Bridge Over the River Kwai, where they modified a Black 5 with side-tanks (not quite as extreme as the Class 20 in Goldeneye, but getting there).

A few years ago, the RM did a major article on this very subject.

 

[mallard]

"The Bank Job" starring Jason Stratham has several tube scenes, all station scenes are clearly filmed at Aldwych (which is understandable), but since the film is set in 1971 the use of 1972 stock is a bit of a blooper, especially when LUL could have supplied their '38 stock unit...

 

[generalvegitable]

isn't it also strange that on hot fuzz he took a combination of virgin trains and chiltern railways to get to Gloucestershire

 

[Wyvern]

Did anyone see the recent episode (20 April?) where the detective rushes to Marylebone to join the Birmingham train to try and talk this women out of leaving.

It looked like Marylebone, it seemed like a Chiltern service train with Chiltern announcements but what station was it where he got out??

 

[jopsuk]

"Spooks" often uses the interior of Liverpool Street (handy for filing with the upper level giving good views of the main concourse) and uses overhead outside shots of... white Networkers. Crossing the Thames.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

A long dormant memory has surfaced in my brain; anyone remember Dempsey and Makepeace?

In particular, the episode in which the Waterloo and City Line appeared to have been extended to at least five stations in length.....?!

 

[Pumbaa]

"Spooks" often uses the interior of Liverpool Street (handy for filing with the upper level giving good views of the main concourse) and uses overhead outside shots of... white Networkers. Crossing the Thames.

Ah yes - the Euston episode in the last series, with the first overhead shots being of Cannon St...

 

[moonrakerz]

All I'll say is, Michael Portillo's Great British Railway Journeys, where do you start...

The best bit in that is the aerial clip of Kingswear station with (what appears to be) a loco backing out of the station pushing a number of coaches.
If you look at this scene carefully, you will see all the cars in the road outside the station are going backwards !