Most of the locations that were used in this episode were in south-east London, around Peckham, rather than in west London, around Hammersmith and Kensington, close to the Colet Court production office, as for nearly all the other episodes.
The film Stupid Hawes is describing to Billy Martin after they steal the Mini is Blowup - which was screened in mid 1974 when this episode was probably scripted and filmed.
Trevor Preston who wrote this episode, went on the write a further 11 episodes. The last one being Bait (1978). He also wrote The Car Lot Baggers (1984), starring Dennis Waterman.
Jill Townsend was the first of many girlfriends for John Thaw's Regan throughout the series; as is usual, they seem in a contented relationship but she's never heard of again.
This first edition of the series was 7th in the charts with an audience of 7.25 million under the Joint Industry Committee for Television Advertising Research (JICTAR) Ratings System.
At this point (and for the first three series of the Sweeney) JICTAR measured audiences in terms of households, rather than individual viewers. Consequently, it's not possible to accurately calculate how this would have translated into individual viewers, though it would likely have been around the 10.8 million mark.
At this point (and for the first three series of the Sweeney) JICTAR measured audiences in terms of households, rather than individual viewers. Consequently, it's not possible to accurately calculate how this would have translated into individual viewers, though it would likely have been around the 10.8 million mark.