There is a known phenomenon in TV, in which producers assume that they can get away with inaccuracies because while some people might notice there’s a problem, anyone without their local or specialist knowledge won’t notice because they won’t know any better.
What then to make of episode 2 of Starz (US)’s super-powered spy show The Rook, which is available on Virgin Ultra HD in the UK? Last week, I queried where US agent Olivia Munn had come from when she arrived on an East Midlands line train in St Pancras. You could tell it was an East Midlands line train not through any spoddy trainspottery knowledge about train types but because it said “East Midlands” on the side.
However, this week it was revealed she wasn’t coming from the American Embassy in Beeston, but had actually come in from the continent “on the Eurostar”.
Which brings us to an interesting question: would a US viewership with enough cash to watch premium cable channel Starz not know what a Eurostar looks like – or at the very least, to know that the East Midlands isn’t somewhere near Paris?
