To aid the air of dishevelment surrounding Alfred Green, Terry-Thomas slept in his costume for a fortnight (two weeks) before filming, and rubbed at the suit's seams with a pumice stone.
By a curious coincidence, Sir Richard Attenborough and John Schlesinger, became both Oscar and BAFTA winners as directors (with multiple Direction BAFTAs in the case of Schlesinger, though both won additionally for producing and, in Attenborough's case, acting as well), both appeared in this movie as actors, long before either had directed a major theatrical movie (Schlesinger had only some very low-budget, independent features and television work to his name at the time, and it would be over a decade before Attenborough directed his first movie, Oh! What a Lovely War (1969), for which he would go on to lose the 1970 BAFTA for Best Direction to Schlesinger and Midnight Cowboy (1969)). Aside from eventually becoming two of only a handful of Britons to ever win the Best Director Oscar, they are also the only two to have had extensive acting careers, and this movie marked the single occasion in which they appeared in the same movie, though both had previous experience in movies made by the Boulting brothers.
Henry Cecil, who wrote the book from which the movie was scripted, sat for many years at Willesden County Court as His Honour Judge Leon. He may have been a script consultant since the legal detail is remarkably accurate. Judge Leon's weakness on the bench was a great fondness for reconciling the parties and encouraging settlement of their disputes, instead of getting on with the hearing. He tried to be a conciliator rather than a judge.
A 271 was a court form of application for a defendant to appear in person for an oral exam.Failire to comply could be treated as contempt.A Judge would certainly know what that was and wouldn't have dismissed a case on the way shown
A movie distinguished by the fact that the actors included two subsequent Oscar winners (Richard Attenborough and John Schlesinger) and a double Tony winner, George Rose.