Incorrect number plates in TV and Film

[RC1807]

PistonBroker said:

As already said, it must be hard to avoid legal issues if you end up inadvertently using someone's plate. So best to go this route I suppose - plates that couldn't possibly exist.

Yup!

[crossle]

There was a detective series on in the last couple of years where the female lead had a VW Golf with different front & rear plates. It drove my OCD crazy...

[Evangelion]

There's also the danger, if you use a real plate, that the car could come up for sale a few years down the line, and the seller says it was driven by a little old lady who only used it for church on Sunday, but the buyer is an anorak who can remember seeing it being thrashed within an inch of its life on the telly.

[S100HP]

On a similar vein, anyone else get annoyed by the cars in adverts being de-badged? We all know its a broken down Mazda!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNVO-0aE7tw

[Biker 1]

S100HP said:

On a similar vein, anyone else get annoyed by the cars in adverts being de-badged? We all know its a broken down Mazda!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNVO-0aE7tw

What a ste ad - not only is it a de-badged Mazda, but apparently they are driving on the A538, with a sign to the A56 & the airport & M25. The A538 & A56 are up north, Yorkshire way. Towards the end of the ad, they are driving clockwise on the M25 towards J6, A22....

Edit: it gets worse - check out the gallery: http://www.theaa.com/about-us/singing-baby/behind-...

Edited by Biker 1 on Wednesday 24th April 16:43

[Evangelion]

The bloody awful (so-called) music made sure I only lasted about 10 seconds.

[Dave.]

"Product Placement" annoys the fk out of me, when during an episode they will be a car scene, where the actors will need to make a call, set a destination on the nav, park, etc. and they make a massive point of showing the badge, the buttons, the screen, or whatever. Does my head in.

Don't get me started on cold/empty cups of fake coffee....

[droopsnoot]

Dave. said:

"Product Placement" annoys the fk out of me, when during an episode they will be a car scene, where the actors will need to make a call, set a destination on the nav, park, etc. and they make a massive point of showing the badge, the buttons, the screen, or whatever. Does my head in.

Don't get me started on cold/empty cups of fake coffee....

On the other hand, only ever using search engines that don't exist, and usually have really corny names that no self-respecting beardy Silicon Valley start-up would ever have considered.

[legless]

droopsnoot said:

One for the LoD thread, but do they ever actually say where it's supposed to be set?

It's alluded to that it's supposed to be set around the Midlands.

There's occasional references to places in/close to Birmingham. This ties in with the fact that the first series was filmed there.

[2172cc]

Pericoloso said:

The RS2000 on the Professionals is of a spec that shouldn't be on a T plate.

Much internet speculation of it being a false plate too.

PNO641T.

Loads of false plates on the cars in The Professionals.
Have look here and it should become clear as mud
http://www.mark-1.co.uk/Professionals/profcars.htm

Same went for Terry's Capri in Minder which had the number SLE 71R on both MK1 and MK2 cars.

[Cold]

...and stop leaving the headlights on when you get out of the car at night!

[davek_964]

Not number plates, but a similar thing : Was watching The Mentalist, and there are a couple of episodes with a character who is absolutely minted - i.e. private jet / private yacht kind of minted.
When you see him turn up in a car, he turns up in..... a Gallardo. Now, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with a Gallardo - and I'm quite happy to believe he'd be driving a Lambo - but unless that's his daily shed, I doubt it would be a Gallardo.

[Cfnteabag]

The one that always gets me is Vera leaving her Defender unlocked all the time in dodgy areas of the North East, most of the time can't leave a defender locked and alarmed anywhere without someone trying To Nick it!

[p4cks]

Another thing which annoys me is with period dramas/films... whilst the production company has gone to great lengths to find and use cars of that period, they're always absolutely immaculate! Just chuck a bit of dirt on them ffs

[dvb70]

davek_964 said:

Not number plates, but a similar thing : Was watching The Mentalist, and there are a couple of episodes with a character who is absolutely minted - i.e. private jet / private yacht kind of minted.
When you see him turn up in a car, he turns up in..... a Gallardo. Now, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with a Gallardo - and I'm quite happy to believe he'd be driving a Lambo - but unless that's his daily shed, I doubt it would be a Gallardo.

The worst example I have seen recently of this was in Antman. Micheal Douglas super scientist and owner of some massive corporation turns up at the gates of his office driving a Triumph spitfire. I guess someone thought it would just look like some exotic European car to the average US movie viewer but a Spitfire? They could have at least gone for a TR6 or something.

I did try and enlighten the girlfriend as to why this was a slightly odd choice for a a guy who is presumably a multi millionaire but they were none too interested.

Edited by dvb70 on Thursday 25th April 09:46

[droopsnoot]

p4cks said:

Another thing which annoys me is with period dramas/films... whilst the production company has gone to great lengths to find and use cars of that period, they're always absolutely immaculate! Just chuck a bit of dirt on them ffs

I had mine in the background of a film set, and the note from the production team was to not bother washing the cars as they didn't want them to look new. Doesn't help, though, as mine's always clean - for the nothing at all they were paying, I'm not messing the car up and cleaning it all off again.

Anyway, the whole country was much cleaner back then, everyone took more pride, there was no litter and cars were always perfectly clean. Or something like that.

[Cantaloupe]

Yes, Routemaster Moments, where pedantic nitpickers with comb-overs seriously trash an entire series or film because the baddie
drove a Ford Zodiac MK4 when the show was set in 1964.

I love it

more please.

[joropug]

When pointing these out to your other half, it's imperative you do so with a nasally dismissive voice, whilst turning your nose up at the television.

[Rushjob]

crossle said:

Can't remember the programme, but a robbery scene set in 1961 with two Jaguar MkII getaway cars, one with a "C" suffix, the other with a "D".

I get told off by my Mrs for pointing out this sort of thing...

The one that sticks with me is the closing scene in Ice Cold in Alex, as the Military Police drive off with Anthony Quayle there is a Land Rover parked at the side of the road, about 6 or so years before they were launched.

[Shakermaker]

RC1807 said:

PistonBroker said:

As already said, it must be hard to avoid legal issues if you end up inadvertently using someone's plate. So best to go this route I suppose - plates that couldn't possibly exist.

Yup!

I wondered if the DVSA have set aside special plates for just this purpose

Chris Harris put a screenshot from LoD on his Twitter feed, and one sad, sad person was saying how it was illegal for them to have these numberplates on the cars because they were newer than the car itself (67 plates on a 10-year old Range Rover type thing), even when it was pointed out that since it was filmed for TV it didn't matter at all. He seemed to think it was still illegal... made 7-8 tweets on the subject. I made the mistake of reading them all. Can't find his PH username though

Edited by Shakermaker on Thursday 25th April 14:49