The jury was composed of non-actors chosen at random from the electoral roll of Manchester, where the Granada television studios were located. Only the jury foreman was an actor; this was needed to comply with Equity rules on speaking parts only being given to Equity members. All the episodes of a given case were recorded on the same day, and the jury was given 30 minutes to reach its verdict, based on the evidence that it had heard. For many stories, two endings were scripted and rehearsed to match whichever verdict (guilty or not guilty) the jury happened to return.
Scriptwriter Michael Wilcox said he submitted a script which was produced, but ultimately left unbroadcast for political reasons in 1984. This was "A Party to Crime" (later adapted for stage as "Green Fingers"), centring around two young gay men being accused of burglary and the homophobic reactions to them at trial.
The show's theme song was "Distant Hills." It was released as the B-side to the Simon Park Orchestra's UK number-one single "Eye Level", the theme to another early 1970s drama series, Van der Valk (1972).
The orchestral music used as the opening theme to the series is from the beginning of the fourth movement of "Sinfonietta" by Leos Janácek.
As was common at the time, the end credits were produced by a camera pointing at a black "roller-towel" with white lettering. In several episodes the credits zoom out or shift slightly as they are rolling, when the cameraman realises he has initially zoomed in too close and then has to zoom out to accommodate longer character/actor names that are about to roll onto the screen.