The film was shot at Essex's Category B jail HMP Chelmsford, before it was returned to service following a fire in March 1978. The film company admin offices were located in the prison's hospital block.
This movie came out after the sequel Going Straight (1978) had finished, but it is set before with Fletcher in the same prison as the original series.
Officer Beale suggests to Mackay "his" idea of bringing a team of celebrities up from London to play a prisoners' team, claiming it will "work wonders". He is holding a Double Diamond beer glass, which was advertised at the time as "working wonders".
Slade inmate Lotterby is an homage to Sydney Lotterby, the BBC producer who oversaw Porridge (1974) and its sequel Going Straight (1978) on television. Porridge (2017) features a character named Joe Lotterby, played by Dave Hill, who served a sentence at Slade in the 1970s alongside Fletch, and who subsequently becomes the cell-mate of his grandson, Nigel Fletcher, at Wakeley Prison.