Natasha King (Princess Leia of Hungary) has remarked on the kindness of the cast and crew to her as a child actor and recalled that, at the end of filming, Rowan Atkinson presented her with a bouquet of flowers.
Miriam Margolyes spoke of her enjoyment during the production, and was happy to take on role of a fat, hideously ugly Infanta as she held the cast and production team in such affection.
Jim Broadbent later confessed that he had no idea at the time what a Spanish accent should sound like, and improvised with "a very bad cod Italian accent" - which turned out in the end to be a very successful comedic strategy. Richard Curtis remarked that it was an "astonishing technical feat, to get the rhythms of the English language so completely wrong."
This was Miriam Margolyes' first collaboration with Rowan Atkinson, and she expressed admiration that he was able to overcome his stammer and perform as an actor.
Confusingly, this 4th episode has the on-screen episode title graphic stating "2. The Queen of Spain's Beard", obviously as it was originally intended as episode 2. Officially, the reason for the swapping the original broadcast order of episode 2 & 4 was that "The Queen of Spain's Beard" was not ready. It's more likely however, that they were actually swapped as a simple artistic choice as episode 4 makes a stronger second episode for a brand new series.
Some series 1 compilations return these 2 episodes to their originally intended position in the run, not the original broadcast order.
Some series 1 compilations return these 2 episodes to their originally intended position in the run, not the original broadcast order.