 The original casting was the responsibility of Pat O'Connell, and there is a strong link with some of the original male cast appearing in successful plays at the Royal Court Theatre in London during early 1983.John Salthouse and Eric Richard took the lead roles in the Martin Allen play "Red Saturday", and Gary Olsen, Mark Wingett and Robert Pugh all appeared in “Welcome Home”.During 1984 a dispute between Thames Television and the technician's union, the ACTT led to a series of strikes which impacted the production and transmission on the ITV network of the first series.