The "vox pop" TV interviews conducted by Dirk Bogarde's character with people in the street were all done with genuine members of the public, not actors, and were not scripted.
Director John Schlesinger claimed that the original idea for this movie came from a chance remark made to him by newspaper columnist and television personality Godfrey Winn, when the latter was playing a brief acting role (as himself) in Billy Liar (1963). The character of Diana Scott was based on a real person whom Winn had known.
The second of three movie collaborations between Director John Schlesinger and Julie Christie. The first was Billy Liar (1963) and the third, Far from the Madding Crowd (1967). He also directed her in a TV production of "Separate Tables" in the 1980s.
Sir Dirk Bogarde was due eight percent of the net profits. According to his biographer, John Coldstream, this had amounted to less than twenty thousand dollars by the time of Bogarde's death.
Although he won an Oscar for his screenplay and was, for a time, the highest-paid screenwriter in Europe as a result, Frederic Raphael was not very happy with this film, claiming, many years later, that director John Schlesinger had wanted to replace him with the novelist Edna O'Brien.
John Schlesinger: Conducting auditions for the play. Diana walks out before being called, to visit Miles.