The series was reportedly the favourite television programme of Margaret Thatcher, the British Prime Minister at the time it aired.

Nigel Hawthorne won the BAFTA for Best Comedy Performance four times in a row for his role as Sir Humphrey, while Paul Eddington, though nominated, never won.

Both Nigel Hawthorne and Paul Eddington reportedly asked to see a second and even a third episode script before committing to the series, despite immediately recognising the quality of the writing.

Jonathan Lynn cast Derek Fowlds as Bernard Woolley after meeting him by chance at a dinner and offering him the role on the spot.

The character of political advisor Frank Weisel was dropped after the first series because the writers felt a character focused on party politics distracted from the central tension between government and civil service.

The writers deliberately avoided identifying Jim Hacker's political party, naming his party headquarters 'Central House' as a blend of the real Conservative Central Office and Labour's Transport House, and giving his rosette a neutral white colour instead of red or blue.

Writer Jonathan Lynn said his disillusionment with pompous student politicians at the Cambridge Union, some of whom later became real government ministers like Michael Howard and Kenneth Clarke, convinced him the best way to engage with politics was to satirise politicians.

Many storylines were based on real events told to the writers by insiders such as Bernard Donoughue and Marcia Falkender, former aides to Prime Ministers Harold Wilson and James Callaghan; for example, the episode 'The Moral Dimension' was based on a real incident involving alcohol on a trade mission to Pakistan.

After writing the fictional episode 'The Compassionate Society' about a hospital with 500 administrative staff but no doctors, nurses or patients, the writers discovered that six real hospitals existed with exactly this absurd situation.

Set designers were given access to the real Cabinet Rooms and State Drawing Rooms for research, but for security reasons the room layouts were altered and the views from the windows were never shown on screen to avoid revealing the real building layouts.

The opening title caricatures of the three lead actors were hand-drawn and animated by cartoonist Gerald Scarfe, who filmed his own drawing process from above two frames at a time to create a 'self-drawing' effect.

The theme music, composed by Ronnie Hazlehurst, is based on the Westminster Quarters (the chimes of Big Ben) and bears a strong resemblance to Hazlehurst's theme for To The Manor Born, written around the same time.

The pilot episode 'Open Government' originally had different opening titles and a different, more up-tempo brass band theme by Max Harris, which went unbroadcast until the DVD release; when the pilot aired as part of series 1, it used the standard Scarfe/Hazlehurst titles instead.

Episodes were videotaped in front of a studio audience, and the cast reportedly did not enjoy this format because they felt the live audience added extra pressure to the lengthy dialogue scenes.