Michael Palin was offered the role of Charlie McManus but was unavailable due to other work commitments.
One of two comedies where the two male lead characters impersonate members of the clergy which launched within three months of each other in the USA during 1989-1990. The movies are We're No Angels (1989) which debuted December 1989 in the USA where Robert De Niro and Sean Penn pretended to be priests and Nuns on the Run (1990) which opened stateside March 1990 where Eric Idle and Robbie Coltrane hid-out dressed up as nuns.
Writer-director Jonathan Lynn wanted this film to be in the tradition of the Ealing comedies of the 1950s.
Final production made by Handmade Films (under its original incarnation, which had started in the late 1970s).