The first time in eight years that Victoria Wood and regular collaborator Susie Blake had worked together; they previously worked together in Wood's series' As Seen on TV (1985), Victoria Wood (1989) and All Day Breakfast (1992)
The white and blue windowpane check gown Honeysuckle Weeks wears as Alice Cottisloe in "Plots and Proposals" when she answers the door is the same costume Billie Piper (Fanny Price) wears in Mansfield Park (2007), Rosamund Stephen (Henrietta Musgrove) wears in Persuasion (2007), Vicki Hopkins wears in The Regency House Party (2004), and Emma Thompson wears in Sense and Sensibility (1995). The same costume is also worn in Byron (2003) by an extra at the London party where Byron meets Annabella Milbanke.
Wood imitates the then shadow Home Secretary, Ann Widdecombe, in a memorable song named after the latter. The following year, both Wood and Widdecombe appeared as guests on the chatshow Parkinson, in which Widdecombe stated she enjoyed Wood's impersonation of her.