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.
Brian is from London and Charlie is from Liverpool. In the Japanese subtitled version, Brian's dialogue is subtitled in Tokyo dialect and Charlie's in Osaka dialect.