David Thewlis was disappointed at being given such a small role, so Mike Leigh promised him that the next time he considered Thewlis for a role in a film, "he'd be given a fair slice of the pie." Thewlis would be cast as the lead in Leigh's next film Naked (1993), and win an award for his performance.
Aubrey's bizarre recipes were devised by Mike Leigh and Timothy Spall over the course of an evening, and then checked for plausibility with a professional chef, who advised them about which ones were technically impossible to prepare; all the ones that appear in the film are, as Leigh put it, "all feasible, gross as it sounds."
The menu of the Regret Rien restaurant includes:
Black Pudding and Camembert Soup,
Boiled Bacon Comsommé,
Saveloy on a Bed of Lychees,
Liver in Lager,
Pork Cyst,
Clams in Ham with Pan-Fried Cocke-based Sauce,
Prune Quiche,
King Prawn (just one) in Jam Sauce,
Duck in Chocolate Sauce,
Tongues in a Rhubarb Hollandaise,
Tripe Soufflé,
Quails on a Bed of Spinach and Treacle,
Kidney Vols-au-vent,
Chilled Brains,
Prune Quiche,
Grilled Trotter with Eggs Over Easy
On-screen twins Jane Horrocks and Claire Skinner were, appropriately enough, born in the same year (1964), though roughly nine months apart.
Mike Leigh's least favorite of his own films.