Here Helena Bonham Carter adds to her impressive string of portrayals of interesting 20th Century women. Previously she was Princess Margaret, Elizabeth Taylor, and Mrs. Lee Harvey Oswald.
The real Tony Adams and Susan Hanson appear in the final scene amongst the crew watching Noele Gordon film her guest appearance in Venice.
Max Brown (Michael Summerton) was in the cast of the Crossroads revival in 2001, Crossroads (2001). He played the character of Mark Russell.
The character of Poppy Ngomo is one of the few fictional characters in the piece. A black actress, Cleo Sylvestre, was indeed controversially introduced into Crossroads in the late 70s, as Meg's adopted daughter, Melanie. However, in Nolly, Poppy Ngomo is an actress playing Meg's adoptive niece. This revision of history allowed writer Russell T Davies to create an entirely fictional incident where Noele Gordon deliberately made life difficult for the actress during filming.
Although set in Birmingham, most of the city centre scenes were filmed in Bolton, Lancashire, due to significant architectural changes in Birmingham since the early 1980s when the show is set.