This episode marked Charlie Fairhead's 30 years of service at Holby, a couple of weeks before the real-life 30-year anniversary of the start of Casualty (1986) on 6 September 1986. Many previous cast members made cameo appearances, either at Charlie's party or else on video messages to him.
The helicopter crash which aired during the episode was originally going to be a plane crash.
Although production and filming for Casualty had moved to Cardiff several years before, the aerial shots of the air ambulance helicopter were filmed over the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, as a tie-in with the origins of Casualty being filmed in Bristol: the very first episode of Casualty opened with a shot of Charlie driving over the bridge.