The episode marks Hugh Laurie's first ever Blackadder appearance, and Miriam Margolyes' second. Laurie would go on to appear in every subsequent episode of the show.
At the end of the story, Miriam Margolyes's character states that 'luck' "sounds almost exactly like 'f-' " before the end credits cut her off. Margolyes was famously the first person ever to utter the F-word on the BBC in the 1960s, the same network that originally aired Blackadder.
The role of Lord Nathaniel Whiteadder was originally offered to Jim Broadbent, who was unavailable. He had previously paired with Miriam Margolyes in The Queen of Spain's Beard (1983).