Because Matt Smith filmed this (BBC) movie during his break from playing the lead character in the BBC's hit television series "Doctor Who," the BBC gave Geoffrey Sax, this movie's director, strict instructions that Smith was never allowed to be shown nude. In a newspaper interview, Sax said, "They told me I must not show Doctor Who's bare bottom. They were quite firm about that, even though Matt was playing an entirely different character. They have invested a lot in him as the 11th Doctor and were due to make a second series with him, so they were obviously anxious to protect their property."
The dolphin desk clock that appears in this movie actually belonged to Isherwood while he lived in Berlin. It was lent to the film's production by Don Bachardy, Isherwood's longtime romantic partner, who visited the set during filming.
While filming this movie in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Ulster Unionists vehemently protested the fact that some scenes required giant roof-to-ground Nazi swastika banners to be hung on the exteriors of buildings. This protest resulted in those exterior scenes only being filmed in the very early morning or late night, which greatly complicated the filming schedule.
In Christopher Isherwood's original 1937 short story "Sally Bowles", the eponymous character expresses antisemitic sentiments. As a staunch anti-racist, Jean Ross was incensed that Isherwood depicted her fictional alter-ego Sally Bowles as supportive of "the attitudes which led to Dachau and Auschwitz". Scholars have noted the antisemitic remarks in "Sally Bowles" were a reflection of Isherwood's prejudices which the author regretted in the aftermath of the Holocaust. When the 1937 short story was later anthologized in both "Goodbye to Berlin" and "The Berlin Stories," Isherwood insisted that Sally's antisemitic remarks be deleted.
Although his stories about the nightlife of Weimar Berlin became commercially successful and secured his reputation as an author, Christopher Isherwood later denounced his own writings. In a 1956 essay, Isherwood lamented that he had not understood the suffering of the people which he depicted. He stated that 1930s Berlin had been "a real city in which human beings were suffering the miseries of political violence and near-starvation. The 'wickedness' of Berlin's night-life was of the most pitiful kind; the kisses and embraces, as always, had price-tags attached to them.... As for the 'monsters', they were quite ordinary human beings prosaically engaged in getting their living through illegal methods. The only genuine monster was the young foreigner who passed gaily through these scenes of desolation, misinterpreting them to suit his childish fantasy."