Two days before filming the Rome museum scene, the production team learned that permission to film in a historic palazzo was rescinded for political reasons. The team scrambled to find an alternate location in time to keep the shoot on schedule, and found such a place in the Palazzo Doria-Pamphili. They later learned that this was the place where George Eliot met the man on whom she based the character of Will Ladislaw, the man she eventually married.
The series has been considered a watershed for BBC costume drama, as it cost £6 million, achieved by co-producing with the American station WGBH, and was shot entirely on film and featured extensive location filming, including in Italy. This led to a significant rise in the production values audiences would come to expect in BBC costume dramas, as seen in the following year's hugely successful adaptation of Orgoglio e pregiudizio (1995).