Sugar Rush is loosely based on the 2004 Julie Burchill novel of the same name, but showrunner Katie Baxendale admitted that the writers 'took the main characters from the book, basically, and changed the story completely.'

After reading how much the story had changed, Julie Burchill emailed Baxendale encouraging her to alter it even further, saying 'change what the bloody hell you want, I love it!'

In the original novel, Sugar is white and portrayed as vapid, and Saint is a middle-class black girl described with stereotyped, exaggerated language, whereas the TV series changed these characterizations significantly and relocated most of the story away from the novel's school-centric setting.

Andrew Garfield played Kim's neighbour Tom in the first series but did not return for the second series.

Sugar Rush won Best Children & Young People Programme at the 34th International Emmy Awards on 20 November 2006.

The show was nominated for the Best Drama Series BAFTA Television Award in 2007 alongside Life on Mars and Shameless, but lost to The Street.

Lenora Crichlow's performance as Sugar inspired author Julie Burchill to write the 2007 sequel novel Sweet.

Channel 4 cancelled the show after two series despite producer Johnny Capps saying he was 'surprised and disappointed', claiming he had ideas for future series and was told privately that the real reason was a lack of scheduling slot, contradicting Channel 4's official statement that no further seasons were ever planned.

The DVD releases of Sugar Rush almost entirely remove the original licensed soundtrack and replace it with royalty-free music from Audio Network PLC, and since the show's video-on-demand version with the original soundtrack was removed from Channel 4's streaming service, no official version with the broadcast audio intact currently exists.

The DVD releases also include additional narration dialogue from Kim that is absent from the original broadcast and on-demand versions, for reasons that remain unknown.