The set of the House of Commons chamber is the same one that was a part of Granada Studios Tour. It was purchased personally by the scriptwriter Paul Abbott so it could be used in the drama; otherwise it would have been destroyed when the Tour closed, and he feared it would take too long to get the necessary money from the BBC. It is currently kept in storage in Oxford.
A second season was commissioned by then-BBC Commissioner Greg Dyke before the first season had even been transmitted. The second season never materialized, however, because Paul Abbott felt he didn't know how to make the story work and he had already had tremendous success with Shameless (2004).
The series won a Peabody Award in 2004.
Philip Glenister and John Simm have co-starred in four series together - Clocking Off (2000), State of Play, Life on Mars (2006), and Mad Dogs (2011) and one film, Tu£sday (2008). They both starred in the series Prey (2014) (TV Mini-Series), but in separate seasons.
The British miniseries State of Play was adapted into the feature film State of Play (2009), set in the United States.