Actor, Writer, and Producer Sir Michael Palin and Director Richard Loncraine said that they didn't succeed in achieving everything they wanted to with this movie, but though not perfect, it turned out very well nonetheless.
Director Richard Loncraine has said of this movie that it was "one of the happiest films I've ever made."
Sir John Gielgud turned down the role of Lord Ames. Sir Laurence Olivier was then offered the part, but proved to be too expensive. In the end, the character was cast with Trevor Howard.
To create the effect of a 1906 street, the production built a façade of terrace houses in a bombed section of London near Columbia Road Flower Market. One day, Director Richard Loncraine saw an upset-looking old woman glancing at the houses. When asked, she responded, "My house came back." The woman maintained that the house was the one in which she had been born.
The opening sequence set in Africa was actually filmed there. The production spent three days in Kenya's northern scrub-lands to shoot the scenes.