Alexandra Pigg and Peter Firth are married in real life.
The script was written in only two weeks and the film was shot in three weeks.
Wording of Elaine's letter to Brezhnev, as seen on screen as she writes it: "Dear President Brezhnev, I know you must be a very busy man, but I dearly hope that you can find the time to help me. I recently met and fell in love with a young Russian sailor, Peter Mayakovsky. There seems to be no hope for us - my only chance of a happy future life is to be with him - but he is in Russia and I am here, we're so far apart. I am alone and desperately in love. I don't believe what they tell us about the Russian people and system, and I don't care. I just need to be with Peter again, he loves me, and I deeply love him, our love stretches over two continents. You're my last and only hope, the British authorities have done nothing to help me, so I leave my heart in your hands. I ask only to see him again and offer you the hand of friendship and sincerity from an ordinary Kirkby girl. Yours hopefully, Elaine Spencer."
Was produced on a very tight budget (£ 300,000) with cast and crew working under an agreement of deferred payment.
The world premiere of the film was in October 1985, in advance of the countrywide release a month later, in the Knowsley (Kirkby) council's offices, which had to be adapted for the occasion because Kirkby had no cinema at the time. Kirkby/Knowsley was the setting as well as the filming location for many important scenes.