This film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary - Short Subject in 1963. After the nominations were announced, it was discovered the film had already been released, and the nomination had to be withdrawn.
Most of the people in the film were real people going about their business. Margaret Ashcroft (a relative of director John Schlesinger and listed under her married name Margaret Perry), the handcuffed prisoners, and the confused elderly woman (Roland Curram's aunt Gertie) were among the handful of actors.
The lost boy reunited with his mother, is Mathew Perry, aged somewhere between five and six at the time. His mother in the film was played by his real mother Margaret Perry, nee Ashcroft. His distress is very real.
Margaret Ashcroft was an actress and the niece of famous British actress Dame 'Peggy' Ashcroft via her brother Edward Worsley Ashcroft.