Joan Trotter has an affair with Freddie Robdal and Rodney Trotter is the result. In real life, Nicholas Lyndhurst was the result of an affair his mother had with a married man.
David Jason visited the set and gave James Buckley his approval of playing a younger version of his character.
Nicholas Lyndhurst said he agreed to make the series because it was so different from Only Fools and Horses (1981) because it was shot completely differently, without a studio audience, and was more of a drama than a sitcom, therefore it could not be directly compared with it.
The series came to a pre mature end after death of creator/writer John Sullivan who had written every episode of Only fools and horses and this show at least 2 more episode where planned leading up to the deaths of Freddy and Joan with potential for more episodes focusing on young dell and granddad
Joan says Rodney is named after the actor Rod Taylor who appears in an H.G. Wells film. This film must be "The Time Machine" which could be John Sullivan making a joke about Nicholas Lyndhurst playing both Rodney and Freddie Robdall effectively being his own father.