Anachronisms

Well spotted. It's possible that the kid was referring to Queen Caroline, wife of King George IV, although it is not likely as she was separated from him and lived abroad most of the time, so was not a well known figure.

Some others: when Dickens jumps the barrier at Paddington station and is pursued by PC Copperfield, the latter blows a police whistle - these were not in use until the 1880s. Police in Dickens' time used a wooden rattle to sound the alarm.

The poster for the talk where Dickens meets the man who says 'are there no workhouses?' uses an anachronistic font and layout, as do the internal pages of the printed edition of 'A Christmas Carol'.

During the funeral service, the parson recite 'Rest eternal grant them O lord' &c. This prayer was not included in the Church of England funeral service until 1928.

When the customers are queuing to buy the book at Hatchard's, we hear the sound of a cash register going 'ker-ching'. The cash register was not invented until 1879.

When Dickens' father is seated at dinner he is shown in his shirtsleeves (his waistcoat is mentioned). No 1840s man with aspirations to being a 'gentleman' would sit at dinner in mixed company without wearing his coat. This, along with showing men going hatless in the streets, is a fairly common mistake in historical dramas.

Well spotted, all! liscarcat, when "Yankee Doodle Dandy" played right at the beginning, my heart sank and I was extra alert to possible errors but was able to spot only a few. You'd think anyone not living under a rock would be familiar with the film of the same title about Cohan's life, and know that Cohan was still alive when the film came out, one hundred years after the time of Dickens's life portrayed in The Man Who Invented Christmas. Do the math, people! They could have, and should have, inserted other music--they could have been dancing to almost anything.

Cranmer, you are brilliant! You spotted way more than I did. I was also downcast when the first edition of A Christmas Carol was opened with a totally modern font. Couldn't they make a facsimile edition for the film?

One I was surprised wasn't a mistake is that "flop" was used for a failure so early--according to Webster, twenty years or so before this story, so that was all right.

One everyone else might have missed because it was said very quietly.

(SPOILERS for anyone who may have been living under a rock:)

After Tiny Tim dies, Mrs. Cratchit whispers to her surviving children, "It's okay." "Okay" was a brand new expression in 1841 in America, and was not in wide use in America even then. It is forbidden in certain historical reenactments. It didn't catch on in Britain until much later. "Flop" was okay, "okay" was not okay! In theater, if something is wrong during rehearsal, one is supposed to approach the director, but one time, being in the orchestra, I spoke to the cast directly when someone used "okay"--I believe this was an ad lib during Oliver! but not sure--I just couldn't stand it. I didn't even get in trouble for speaking up either. Perhaps the actress in the film also ad libbed and no one caught it.

Dickens also says "Shut it," dangerously close to "shut up," another no-no.

Restricted to 2,000 characters so continued in next post.

I know this is an old thread, but just watched it and someone says, "There's gold in them thar hills." Near as I can tell, this expression was first used by Matthew Fleming Stephenson (1802–1882), an American miner, geologist, and mineralogist from Georgia, US. In trying to discourage people from heading west for the 1849 Gold Rush, he said this referring to the Georgia hills, hoping to convince folks they could find gold closer to home. So it seems pretty certain this wasn't coined until the late 1840s.