George Lazenby chose to make this film rather than continue playing James Bond in the Bond film Les diamants sont éternels (1971) - or so he has often claimed. In reality, his antics during the prolonged shoot of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" made it immensely unlikely that the producers of the series would tolerate him for a second 007 movie, especially as the film went steeply over its already-lavish budget and took some time to get its costs back (although it eventually made a solid profit). Lazenby's acting was poorly received by critics and the public missed Sean Connery. He was disliked by his fellow-actors, with Diana Rigg famously chewing garlic beforehand whenever they had a kissing scene and Desmond Llewelyn, asked shortly before his death in 1999 why Lazenby had done just the one film, tersely explaining that it was "because he was such a stupid bugger" - Llewelyn spoke warmly of all the other Bonds in the same interview. The film-makers found him arrogant and unprofessional, despite his previous lack of acting experience; he was even rude about his predecessor in the role. Therefore, Eon Productions - and United Artists - were only too willing to pay Sean Connery a seven-figure salary, as well as a hefty percentage of the profits (which he donated to an educational charity), to get him to return in "Diamonds Are Forever".
According to a George Lazenby interview Jimi Hendrix was originally going to write the score for the film, but he died suddenly before filming could begin.
The film was made with an improvisational style. "We did it as we went along", George Lazenby said in an interview."There was a script but we didn't follow it - we were all smoking wacky tobacco."
The BBC showed the film on BBC1 in February 1981 10 years after the original cinema release. As of February 2023 it has not been shown on any UK TV station terrestrial, satellite or cable since that February 1981 screening or has been reissued on video/DVD/Blu Ray in the UK since a early video release in 1982 which was before the 1984 Video Recordings Act having not officially been submitted to the BBFC for a updated rating for a new video/DVD/Blu Ray release as of October 2023 since the original submission to the BBFC in 1971 (when it got the AA certificate for cinema).