Gaffes

During the introduction whilst Sergeant Angel's life in the police is summarised, he says that he was stabbed by "a man dressed as Father Christmas," and when he knocks on the door, you see a scar on his right hand, with which he is knocking, but the flashback of him being stabbed shows "Father Christmas" stabbing him in the left hand.

When Nicholas and Danny are observing the locals from their patrol car, we see Danny finish his cornetto down to the chocolate tip twice.

When Sgt. Angel first approaches his room at the Swan hotel, the camera lingers momentarily on the room door's prominent sign which reads "CASTLE SUITE". Angel hangs up his jacket on a hook, but seconds later he decides to leave. Angel removes his jacket from the hook and opens the door to leave - and the "CASTLE SUITE" sign is gone.

When Sergeant Angel runs up to the top of the church tower as he opens the door you see the truncated stone pillar on his left, but in the subsequent helicopter shot the pillar is missing.

When Nicholas Angel passes by the tow truck during his morning jog, the two employees in the truck nod at him. However, in the next shot, you can clearly see the driver and passenger seats are empty.

When Angel goes to a crime scene to talk to his girlfriend Cate Blanchett, who is a Crime Scene Investigator (CSI), the room is packed with CSIs, at least 8 of them. In real life there would not be this many in a small room like this and, as Nick Frost points out during the DVD commentary, it could even spoil the physical evidence they're trying to collect.

Just after Tim Messenger is murdered, Frank Butterman tells Doris Thatcher to "get the CSI down here". 'CSI', standing for 'Crime Scene Investigators' is an American term, the British equivalent being 'Scene(s) Of Crime Officers' or 'SOCO'. However, this may have been deliberate, as, due to the TV series, the British public are likely more familiar with the term 'CSI'.

Update: While 'SOCO' was the correct term at the time of the film's release in 2007, 'CSI' has become far more prevalent since then; both phrases are used interchangeably within the UK Police Services, but job vacancies are now advertised as 'Crime Scene Investigator' due to this phrase's popularity.

Tony Fisher is sergeant. However the epaulettes on his shoulders don't have sergeant stripes. They are that of a PC.

Sandford police station is considerably over-staffed; even in a larger UK village, a permanent police presence (if any) would consist of one Sergeant, one-or-two Constables and three-or-more Police Community Support Officers, all of whom would be uniformed officers. No detectives would be based at such a small station; they would be based at the borough/district headquarters and go into Sandford only when required.

When the mine detonates at the end of the film, the prong sinks into the mine. The prongs of a naval mine are made of a soft metal (usually lead), designed to bend, not sink in, on contact with a ship's side.

When Nicholas is reading the newspaper in the pub on his first night in Sandford, the newspaper reports trouble with a proposed "Bipass" - this was confirmed as a deliberate typo in the audio commentary in which the director says it was done to annoy the type of people that post on IMDb goofs pages, which it clearly did.

When Nick and Danny confiscate the vast arsenal of unlicensed weapons from the farmer they don't arrest him despite the fact that possession of guns such as pistols in the UK would be highly illegal and earn the man many years in prison.

It is possible the other officer or even Angel and Butterman, had arrested the farmer off-screen.

As Sergeant Angel spends his first night in Sandford, he decides to go to the local pub and finds numerous underage patrons. He kicks them out and almost gets hit by Danny who was driving drunk, the scene shows Nicholas taking Danny to the station, just the two of them. However, when he arrives, he has the underage kids with them.

This is explained in the scene were Angel meets Weaver, and shows Angel arresting the kids one by one, as he makes his way to the station with Danny.

Whilst sitting in the lay by monitoring traffic speed, Angel calls out the speed of one passing car as "40", yet when they stop Blower's car, they write him up for traveling at "48 in a 30 zone". They should therefore have stopped the earlier car as well. In fact, it sounds like forty but actually he said thirty, because the speed checker makes the same sound as it does with the other passing cars, so there was no reason to chase the earlier car - it was abiding by the law as well.

When Danny takes Nicholas away from the village and gives him his car, Nicholas is seen in the boot (trunk) of the car. After he gets out, it appears that neither he nor Danny close the boot, but it is closed when Nicholas drives away. However, a closer look reveals that Danny does indeed close the boot after Nicholas gets out, which explains why it's down for the rest of the scene.

When the kids spray-paint the lenses of the CCTV cameras, the CCTV monitors show the colour of the paint that was sprayed on. In fact, the monitors would show only the colour black because no light would be reflecting back from the painted surfaces.

When Sgt. Angel is putting on the Shotgun shell bandoleer in the Evidence room, you can see that there are no primers in the shell, showing them as non-firing dummies.

Towards the end, when Danny & Sgt. Angel are eating Cornettos in the squad car and Angel states that he's gotten a "brain wave", Danny takes a bite of his Cornetto and immediately grimaces from what could only be explained as "brain freeze". When, in fact, "brain freeze" takes about 10-20 seconds to affect you.

In the opening montage when Nicholas gets stabbed in the hand by Father Christmas, the knife is non-reflective rubber.

When Tim Messenger has his "accident" there are spots of blood on the camera filming the whole thing for the viewer.

The two police Vauxhall Astras used in the final chase sequence are registered with "51" and "02" plates, indicating that they were registered between 1 September 2001 and 31 August 2002. The movie was shot (and presumably set) in 2007, and these cars would have then been five-six years old. UK Police cars are replaced at 3 years old due to the high mileage and heavy use they get in Service.

However, there's no evidence that this film is set in 2007; there's no reference to any year. Without this information it's impossible to classify this as an anachronism.

When Skinner identifies Merchant on CCTV footage and explains that he "built that monstrosity on Norris Avenue", his lips don't match what he is saying.

The swan makes a honking noise, like a goose, although it is a Mute Swan. A Mute Swan's call is quiet and does not carry. They make a snorting "heorrr," or they hiss aggressively.

After the officers gear up for the final battle, in nearly every shot of them approaching the supermarket, the sound of guns being cocked is heard, even though no one is actually cocking a weapon. Further, there's more cocking than there are guns in the scene.

When Angel explains how his ex-girlfriend was of the opinion he was obsessed with his job, his lips don't match what he is saying.

During the fight in the Somerfield supermarket, when they all push trolleys there is an F1 engine sound. Then during the car chase, you can hear Butterman shouting "bang bang !".

In the final car chase, the green screen is visible in many of the shots of Nicholas and Danny's car.

Angel's surprising reassignment from the MP to the Gloucestershire Constabulary would not be possible in real life, let alone as part of promotion and career advancement. Any such transfer would have to be sought by the officer himself, or at least with his prior consent. The Met has no say in the hiring in other services and cannot "trade in workforce" through reassignments as the film suggests.

Although Sgt. Nicholas Angel is supposed to be an expert in the use of firearms, he clearly "flags" (passes the barrel opening of his weapon) Danny, his partner, on several occasions which is both a sign of poor weapon's handling protocol, as well as extremely dangerous.

At the beginning, Cadet Angel is shown placing check marks -- in ink -- in the bubbles on a written test which is labeled "Fill in answers in pencil."

Sgt. Angel is meant to be the best of the best so far as Police Officers go yet he is often seen with his handcuffs the wrong way round. If he removed his handcuffs as he has them he wouldn't be able to apply them as the fixed double bar would be facing the suspect's wrist as opposed to the movable single bar.

UK police officers' pocket notebooks are official documents which must be turned in when full. Officers must use black ink (Sgt. Angel uses blue throughout the movie), use every line on both sides of every page (Neither Sgt. Angel nor PC Butterman does this), and the cartoon flip book would certainly not be allowed.

First of all, Sanford Police wasn't exactly the most reliable, and was seen to be sloppy on the rules throughout. If Danny could get away with drink driving and nearly running someone over, it's doubtful they'd give a damn about the notebooks.

Saying this, Sargent Angel, as an elite officer, would only use the specified ink, and use his notebook as per official instructions. He should be using black ink and filling in the book.

When the police officers are outside the supermarket preparing to storm it, it is clear that one of them is holding a bolt action rifle with the bolt opened.