When the series went into production in 1978 the producers were concerned that they had to find locations that looked authentic for the time the series was set in, but wouldn't cost a fortune to dress up due to a tight budget. Fortunately, the production lucked-out in both the timing of series production and their choice of director for the first episode. Ferdinand Fairfax, the director of that first episode was a south Londoner and knew of parts of Streatham, Tooting, Clapham and Balham that had remained relatively unchanged since the war and suggested them as shooting locations. Some of these areas were due to be demolished and redeveloped as part of the slum clearance policy that had been going on in the UK since the 1950s. Had the series started production just a couple of years later these areas would have looked radically different, but fortunately the film makers were able to get their location filming completed just before the bulldozers moved in.