The mortuary location is a ruined undercroft near York's Museum Gardens. One side of the building is open and was screened with huge cloth backdrops.
In Daniel Defoe's novel Crusoe is a young unmarried man who is shipwrecked on a journey intended to set him up as a slave trader. Crusoe's backstory in the show is largely drawn from Defoe's own life, with the addition of a stolen inheritance plotline (involving Sam Neill's 'Jeremiah Blackthorn') to add intrigue.
The wedding of Robinson and Susannah was filmed in York Minster, which was closed to the public and cleared of all modern fittings so that a giant camera crane could be installed. Other locations in the city included the Old Shambles, St Williams College, and the Merchant Adventurer's Hall. Further filming took place in the ruins of Whitby Abbey and on the Grand Turk, a 3-masted frigate then moored in Whitby harbor and previously used in the Hornblower TV show.