Dumbest. Continuity Mistake. Ever
I'm amazed that no one appears to have picked up on a glaring continuity mistake in this series, which takes place in circa 1956, when women and men dressed in a distinctly conservative style: long dresses, long coats, long everything. "Drab" might cover it one word.
For the most part, the producers seem to get the clothing part right. But suddenly, at the 2.47 mark of the first disk of the first series, all ludicrous hell breaks loose. Romola Gatai and Dominic West are getting it on hot and heavy. West is dressed in the stuffy garb of the mid-1950s; Gatai, however, is wearing a short skirt, replete with a slit in the back because the skirt is too tight. This skirt style is taken right from circa 2010-2012. She is wearing pantyhose, unheard of in 1956; the skirt is cut mid-thigh. How this scene passed muster is beyond me. It was done in front of an army of 'experts,' including the director, producer, editor, even the actors. Surely Romola Gatai herself would have known about this glaring contradiction.
Even funnier is that someone tried to make the pantyhose with SEAMS of all things, because (I'm guessing) the wardrobe people figured it was the 1950s after all, and women's stockings all had seams. Pantyhose NEVER had seams, and didn't become popular until the late 1960s.
The series lost a lost of credibility in my eyes with that mistake. And, of course, as usual with period pieces, the dialogue missed the mark many times -- too many to count. (The characters, living in the mid-1950s, use dialogue and speech patterns from circa 2005 too many times.)
Making a period piece is risky at the best of times. It's obvious almost immediately to the (discerning) viewer if the producers are going to do it right or surrender to sloppiness. They chose the latter course in this one: sloppy, sloppy, sloppy.