During filming, Crimea was suffering from a terrible drought, so water for the cast and crew was scarce. The cast and crew were only able to wash with one liter of water per day, and with temperatures above 90ºF (32ºC), tensions began to flare on-set. John Tams tried to hand in his notice to quit, but it was refused, instead being sent home for two weeks recuperation. Stars Sean Bean and Daragh O'Malley were offered extra conveniences on-set. Michael Mears proved a different story, though. After being refused water on-set, he got into a heated argument with the producers back at the hotel. Despite the efforts of Daragh O'Malley to keep the peace, Mears was fired and sent home after filming wrapped up, hence why his character of Rifleman Cooper makes no further appearances in the Sharpe series.
Screenwriter Nigel Kneale said of his adaptation of Bernard Cornwell's novel: "I didn't use much of [the book]. I used the first ten pages, I think. Then I had an idea which would be more fun to do. It was all about magic by the time I was through with it."
The white dotted muslin gown with long sleeves worn by Jayne Ashbourne (Ellie Nugent) to dinner is the same costume worn by Amira Casar (Catherine) in Sharpe's Siege (1996).
This episode takes place in 1813.
This episode was originally meant to be part of the first series, but the delays caused by Paul McGann's injury and his replacement with with Sean Bean meant they ran out of time to film it. According to Jason Salkey (Rifleman Harris), when the episode was revived for the third series, the original script (which was much more faithful to the book) could not be used, as for various legal reasons it would have meant having to pay the cast and crew of the original attempt as well as this one. Instead they commissioned a new script that bore almost no resemblance to the book.