The show was the first break into television for Rik Mayall, who played an over-excited, anorak-wearing investigative reporter Kevin Turvey. To maintain the illusion that his character was real, Mayall's name did not appear in the closing credits whereas Kevin Turvey's did. The show was also the start of Tracey Ullman's television comedy career. Peter Capaldi, a trained graphic artist from Scotland, contributed to designing the show's opening sequence prior to launching his own career as an actor. The first series won a Scottish BAFTA for Best Entertainment Programme in 1982.
