Richard Armitage first read the script on a train. He laughed so much that he got funny looks from other passengers.
The characters discuss Sense and Sensibility - both the book and the 1995 film - and the Vicar watches part of the film. James Fleet, who plays Hugo Horton in The Vicar of Dibley, played John Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility (1995).
Like their Dibley characters, Richard Armitage and Dawn French are book lovers. Armitage has recorded 40 audiobooks, winning an Audible Award in 2014, whilst French has hand-written several award-winning novels and a best-selling epistolary autobiography, Dear Fatty - her ironic nickname for comedy partner Jennifer Saunders.
Richard Armitage said he and Dawn French have a similar sense of humour - partly because he grew up watching her in 'French & Saunders'.
This episode was the most watched show on British TV Christmas Day 2006 and won the Golden Rose Award for Comedy (2007).