At the train station, there is an unusual black rectangle above the word "Platform" on the platform sign hanging from the ceiling. Its purpose is to cover up the Irish (Gaelic) word "Árdán", which would have been out of place in an English railway station. A slightly different tactic was employed in another scene showing a double-decker bus. Its destination is listed as Beaumont, a real suburb of Dublin. It was most likely chosen partly as a could-be-anywhere sort of name, but mostly because practically every other destination on a Dublin bus is listed bilingually.
When Frank is drunk in the lecture hall, he says, "Not many people know that." This not only became a familiar catchphrase for Michael Caine but also the title of a best-selling collection of trivia anecdotes, which Caine compiled in book form for the National Playing Fields Association charity in 1984.
Maureen Lipman replaced a big name British actress who dropped out.
Julie Walters has seven different hairstyles in the film.