Michael Kitchen (I) was first offered the Bill Nighy role.
The set of the House of Commons chamber is the same one that was a part of Granada Studios Tour. It was purchased personally by the scriptwriter Paul Abbott so it could used in the drama otherwise it would have been destroyed when the Tour closed and he feared it would take too long to get the necessary money from the BBC. It is currently kept in storage in Oxford.
A second season was commissioned by then-BBC Commissioner Greg Dyke before the first season had even been transmitted. The second season never materialized, however, because Paul Abbott felt he didn't know how to make the story work and he had already had tremendous success with Shameless.
