Director Basil Coleman initially felt that the play should be filmed over the course of a year, with the change in seasons from winter to summer marking the ideological change in the characters, but he was forced to shoot entirely in May, even though the play begins in winter. This, in turn, meant the harshness of the forest described in the text was replaced by lush greenery, which was distinctly unthreatening, with the characters' "time in the forest appear(ing) to be more an upscale camping expedition rather than exile."
The play was shot on-location at Glamis Castle in Scotland.
This was one of only two BBC Shakespeare productions shot on-location, the other being Henry VIII (1979). However, the location shooting received a lukewarm response from critics and the BBC's own people, with the general consensus being that the natural world in the episode overwhelmed the actors, actresses, and the story.
Part of the long running BBC Television Shakespeare project which ran between 1978 and 1985.