Esmond Knight (Old Man) previously appeared in all three Shakespearean films directed by Laurence Olivier: Henry V (1944), Hamlet (1948) and Richard III (1955).
This was Laurence Olivier's final Shakespearean role before his death on July 11, 1989 at the age of 82.
According to Dame Diana Rigg, Sir Laurence Olivier wanted to perform all of the long speeches in single takes, as he had done in the theatre, without multiple takes and pick-ups being edited together. However, due to his age, he could never get through any speech without "drying." In 2016, Dame Diana admitted to having never watched this version because she felt so saddened that Sir Laurence had not been able to achieve this ambition.
In a 2022 interview Brian Cox recalled that, because Laurence Olivier was so frail, the cast had to rehearse with his stand-in and Olivier would only be on-set for filming. In conversation with Cox, Olivier regretted that his memory for dialogue had deteriorated and that the BBC's well-received Le roi Lear (1982) was broadcast during shooting, starring the younger and healthier Michael Hordern, but added "I'm still a better f*****g actor than he is any day".
This is the last specifically made-for-television production of a Shakespearean play to have its American television premiere on commercial network television, an occurrence that was much more common in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.