Amelia Bullmore (Eliza Priestley) and Suranne Jones (Anne Lister) also worked together on Scott & Bailey (2011) as DCI Gill Murray and DS Rachel Bailey, respectively.
Sally Wainwright was very familiar with the story of Anne Lister as she grew up in Yorkshire near Shibden Hall.
In the UK, this was the most watched episode with 6.70 million viewers.
In 2016, Sally Wainwright was awarded a £30,000 screenwriting fellowship grant from the Wellcome Trust which she used to research and write a series about Anne Lister.