Before the beginning of Series 6, David Jason was annoyed about something. He went to see John Sullivan. Sullivan was writing terrific scripts that were too long and had to be edited down to 30 minutes. Jason felt they were cutting more funny material than most sitcoms manage in a full episode. One edit that had particularly vexed Jason occurred during this episode. After Del Boy returned from a disastrous hang-gliding session, he originally had a speech Jason described as "beautifully constructed, full of suppressed rage" about all of the places Del had visited. Jason considered it a comic masterpiece, but because the episode had overrun, half the speech got cut. Sullivan agreed with Jason that the episodes needed to be longer. Jason and Sullivan approached Gareth Gwenlan while he was producing Series 6 with the plan to extend the episodes from 30 to 50 minutes. Gwenlan didn't think that was possible since sitcoms were traditionally 30 minutes in length and couldn't sustain a longer running time. Jason said that would be true of an average writer, but not one of Sullivan's caliber. And yet they still keep cutting great material. Gwenlan than okayed the idea.
When the hang glider scene was filmed, David Jason, who is a trained hang glider pilot, scuba diver, and swims with dolphins, wanted to actually fly the glider himself, but the BBC said it was too risky for him to fly it, for insurance reasons.
While waiting to do some gliding in real life, somebody spotted David Jason and that led to people with cameras and their kids and even their dogs posing beside the glider, while he was strapped in, embarrassed and frustrated with this unwanted attention. It put him off gliding.
When Rodney first walks into the living room with his red face and wearing his white suit, Del says he looks like a 'Swan Vesta'. These are a well known brand of 'strike anywhere' matches which have a distinctive red head.
Although Del is terrified of going up in a hang glider, in reality David Jason loves the activity, claiming its a wonderful way to relax and get away from the job. He also believes its the cheapest way to get into the air, and the cheapest kind of aircraft money could buy.