The film was first shown on 17 March 1978, with filming taking place a year earlier. The dialogue in the film was heavily ad-libbed by the cast around a rough outline by the writer and director. The ending was originally planned with Wales winning. When they lost the game the ending was hastily revised, with additional dialogue pick-up shots in the stands of the Cardiff Arms Park. The filming took place in the following order: The village streets (hearse); Training Plane (Rhoose Airport); Paris exteriors; All Paris interiors (BBC Club, Newport Road, Cardiff) The original 1977 members of the Welsh and French RFC teams can be seen in this film on the field and off, including Gareth Edwards, JPR Williams, Phil Bennett and others.
Sharon Morgan's debut.
This film starts 2 actors from Gerry Anderson productions being Windsor Davies and Elizabeth Morgan. Windsor worked in all 39 episodes of Terrahawks (1983) and the Ovni (1970) episode The Cat with Ten Lives (1970). Liz worked in 19 episodes of El capitán Escarlata (1967) (The Mysterons (1967), Winged Assassin (1967), Big Ben Strikes Again (1967), Avalanche (1967), White as Snow (1967), Operation Time (1967), Spectrum Strikes Back (1967), Point 783 (1967), Model Spy (1967), Seek and Destroy (1968), Renegade Rocket (1968), Treble Cross (1968), Flight 104 (1968), Flight 104 (1968), Flight 104 (1968), Place of Angels (1968), Expo 2068 (1968), The Launching (1968), Codename Europa (1968), Inferno (1968) & Attack on Cloudbase (1968) plus archive footage in a 20th Traitor (1968)), 5 Captain Scarlet audio stories and the Joe 90 (1968) episode Viva Cordova (1969). Coincidentally, both actors are Welsh.
Actor Dewi Morris recalled, many years later, that when the cast and crew arrived in Paris for location work, he saw the veteran Hugh Griffith struggling with a very large suitcase in the corridor of their hotel and offered to carry it for him. When he lifted it, he heard glass clinking inside it and soon discovered it was entirely filled with bottles of alcohol - all of which Griifith had consumed by the time of their return to the UK.