The character of Colonel Coote was based upon a real person; Mike Hoare - known as 'mad Mike' - an Irish soldier of fortune who led mercenary forces in civil wars in Congo in the 1960s and - as coincidences would have it, he did lead an actual attempted coup, just as in this episode, only the one he was involved in was in 1981, in the Seychelles. Mr Hoare died in 2020, age 100