Alan Ford plays a shady boxing promoter in this episode, years later, he would play Brick Top, a gangster who promotes and fixes boxing matches in Snatch (2000).
The trainspotting Conservative politician was inspired by Robert Adley MP (1935-1993). Adley wrote ten books on steam engines and was a vocal opponent of the privatisation of British Rail. He had one of the largest Conservative majorities in the country, and was also notable for supporting talks with the ANC and an end to apartheid in South Africa.
Rebecca Front plays a Labour MP in this episode. Later in The Thick of It (2005) (also made by Armando Iannucci) she would play Labour MP Nicola Murray.