This play was originally scheduled for transmission in April 1965 but was delayed by a technical problem with the telerecorder (an early equivalent of a video recorder) which required some scenes to be re-shot. Seven hours before its rescheduled transmission date in June 1965, the play was withdrawn because of its political nature. The BBC required Dennis Potter to rewrite it in a weakened form, and this is the play that was eventually transmitted in December 1965.
By pure coincidence, a party political broadcast by the Conservative party was scheduled to be broadcast immediately before this play in December 1965. Dennis Potter tried to persuade the BBC to remove the opening credits from the play so it appeared to be a continuation of the party political broadcast. Not surprisingly, the BBC refused to allow this blatant blurring between fact and fiction.
The play's withdrawal from its scheduled slot of June 23rd 1965 was reported the following day in The Times:
"A political comedy play, which included references to Mr. Wilson and Sir Alec Douglas-Home, was dropped by the B.B.C. last night shortly before it was due to be screened. Mr. Huw Wheldon, controller of television programmes, said the decision was based on "production reasons" and had no political bias. He and Mr. Sydney Newman, head of drama, had seen a pre-showing and had agreed that the play was not yet ready for transmission."
"A political comedy play, which included references to Mr. Wilson and Sir Alec Douglas-Home, was dropped by the B.B.C. last night shortly before it was due to be screened. Mr. Huw Wheldon, controller of television programmes, said the decision was based on "production reasons" and had no political bias. He and Mr. Sydney Newman, head of drama, had seen a pre-showing and had agreed that the play was not yet ready for transmission."