The film was made and first released about four years after its source novel of the same name by William Boyd had been first published in 1984.
The film's director Pat O'Connor commented about the movie by saying: "The film is about a fish out of water, but it's also about a young Englishman who suffers from the upper-middle-class disease of that English class, which is shyness and a kind of casual hypocrisy covered by politeness."
"The film," according to its writer William Boyd, "looks at certain attitudes of English life, certain manners, the way we talk
to each other and the way we hide our emotions."
Producer David Puttnam first acquired the highly popular novel "Stars and Bars" (1984) written by William Boyd. When Puttnam became Chairman of Columbia Pictures, he and director Pat O'Connor immediately turned to producer Sanford Lieberson, who, after years of being a studio film executive, had re-entered the independent producer ranks with the hit film, Rita, Sue and Bob Too (1987). They then asked Lieberson to take over the production of this picture as a producer.