Sir John Gielgud, who spent most of his career on the stage, considered this movie and the television mini-series Brideshead Revisited (1981) to be his only two screen appearances of which he was genuinely proud.
Theatrical movie debut of Denis Lawson (Dave Woodford). In later years, when he had become famous, he often found himself interviewed about his brief role in the same year in "Star Wars", and would always insist that he was far prouder of his even briefer role in this film, which he has been known to claim is the best movie he's been in.