All the exteriors of India were shot on location in India, but all the interiors of the Indian buildings were shot some six months later and 5000 miles away in the studios of Granada TV in Manchester, causing continuity problems because some of the cast had put on or lost weight in the meantime.
Filming of the interior scenes was disrupted when all the sets and props were destroyed in a fire at Granada studios.
Part of an early 1980s cycle of British productions set in India. These included Gandhi (1982), Heat and Dust (1983), The Far Pavilions (1984), A Passage to India (1984), Octopussy (1983) and The Jewel in the Crown (1984).
Although Judy Parfitt and Geraldine James played mother and daughter respectively there is actually only a fifteen year age difference between them.
Sir Denis Forman, then chairman of Granada Productions, wrote in 1983 that the impetus for doing an adaptation of the Raj Quartet was the success of Paul Scott's novel Staying On. The decision was made to attempt an adaptation of the quartet but to first test the company's ability to successfully complete a production in India by doing an adaptation of Staying On. With the success of that television film, plans proceeded for the quartet.