The show's title refers to the Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms (COBR), a real Whitehall location where British Prime Ministers hold emergency meetings; the title deliberately uses the common media misspelling with a superfluous 'a'.

The first series was filmed across Merseyside, Yorkshire and London, with interior scenes set inside 10 Downing Street actually shot at Capesthorne Hall in Cheshire.

Filming for the second series, subtitled Cyberwar, took place in New Brighton, Wirral and Fleetwood, Lancashire.

Principal photography for the third series, Rebellion, began around October 2022 in the Cheshire village of Lower Peover, with production crew also reported in Halewood in January 2023.

For the third series, London's Cenotaph war memorial was recreated in Liverpool City Centre for filming purposes.

Jane Horrocks joined the cast for the third series as Defence Secretary Victoria Dalton, as announced in November 2022.

For the third series, Toby Finlay took over as lead writer, joined by James Wood and Rachel Anthony in the writers' room, after Ben Richards created and wrote the earlier series.

The second series' plot involves an explosion on a sunken World War II ammunition ship based on the real SS Richard Montgomery, though it is not named as such in the show.

Critical reception was mixed: The Telegraph gave the first episode 3/5 stars calling it gripping but 'implausible and clichéd', while The Independent gave the series just 2/5 stars, describing it as cheap-looking and joking that the best parts were the commercial breaks.