Trivia / Not for Broadcast

• Actor-Inspired Element:
  • Megan Wolfe's brother that she mentions in her speech after the announcement of Advance's nuclear strike was originally named Darren in the script. It was changed to David at the insistence of Andrea Valls, Megan's actor, because David is the name of her real life brother and she felt mentioning his name would add more genuine emotion to her acting.
  • Patrick Bannon was originally based on Peter O'Hanraha-hanrahan from The Day Today, who is similarly a Butt-Monkey and an incompetent reporter, but was later rewritten to better suit the style of his actor, George Vere.
  • The older-sounding woman who calls in to the Telethon is George Vere's real life grandmother
• Dawson Casting: Lucy Foley was 21 years old when filming the role as 15 year old Stacey.
• Descended Creator: The game's director, Jason Orbaum, plays Dr. Thomas Wellington and Dave alongside providing the male vocals to most of the credits music.
• Fake American: Sophia Rymmington speaks in an American accent and is confirmed by Word of God to be from the game's counterpart to America, but is played by English actress Bethany Slater.
• In Memoriam: "Bits Of Your Life" was dedicated to Richard Banks, "Little" Jimmy Chizzel's actor, who passed away two months before the DLC's release.
• Inspiration for the Work:
  • The interruptions during the criminal justice discussion on The Fallout was based on a 2017 BBC interview with political analyst Robert Kelly, where Kelly was interrupted by his children walking into his office.
  • Disrupt's uprising on Day 912 was inspired by the 2021 United States Capitol attack.
• Romance on the Set: Jonathan Hawkins (Alan James) and Lucy Blake (Katie Brightman) were engaged at the time of the filming of the Lockdown chapter during the COVID-19 Pandemic (they have since been married).
• Throw It In!: Given that it's live acted video, this happens a lot.
  • The bin getting knocked over in the Sportsboard segment was not in the script.
  • A meta-example: The Lockdown level wasn't originally in the script when Episode 1 was made, but due to the COVID-19 Pandemic delaying the filming of Episode 2, the developers decided to keep the players entertained by adding the Lockdown level at the end of Episode 1 while they were waiting patiently, and they also added the Telethon level as a bonus to keep players more entertained until Episode 2 was completed in the autumn of 2020.
  • The Lockdown episodes were indeed filmed in the cast's own homes. Andrea Valls was later interviewed as herself in the exact same room with the same details visible.
  • The Telethon has a moment where Graham Bannon makes a quip and there is no sound effect, to which he says "That was a zinger... yes!". This was ad-libbed and not in the script, rather it was a genuine mistake in filming when the sound operator on set missed a cue and didn't play the sound.
  • The falling banner at the end of "Hey! Friendship!" was a visual cue from the director that they were happy with the take and wouldn't have to go again. You can see the mood of the cast change after it falls. It just so happens that it fits very well with the typical low budget cheesiness that the show was.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The game was originally meant to be a VR game, but NotGames decided against it due to concerns over the small market for VR games, so they made the game into a standard PC game. NotGames have, however, gone back to this idea with the VR edition of the game released in March of 2023.
  • In a Reddit AMA, a developer discussed how in the original script, the conflict simple with Disrupt as the good guys and Advance as the bad guys (including having their names swapped). However, they realized this script lacked nuance and didn't reflect real politics well, including how polarizing politics can be and concerns over actions by groups similar to Disrupt in real life. As a result, they went for a Grey-and-Gray Morality approach.
  • The spokesman for Disrupt was originally going to be J-Zuss, with Alan James having only a single appearance. This was changed due to writing issues concerning J-Zuss, along with Alan James' popularity.
  • The game was originally intended to have a prologue episode which involved Jeremy and Patrick exposing Prime Minister Jacob Hamilton-Mann (a parody of Jacob Rees-Mogg) in a sex scandal, setting up Advance's rise into power. Hamilton-Mann is mentioned several times in the story, and appears in a possible headline during The Twenty Week War and as one of Disrupt's leaders in two of the endings.
  • Alex's son Charlie was intended to appear as one of the Team Awards winners during Day 1975 if he was allowed to join the Go-Getters, but was later replaced by Edwin Neverlay.
  • In one of the endings, Megan would have been killed by a Disrupt protestor who was one of the makeup artists she fired.
• Word of Saint Paul:
  • George Vere, who plays Patrick Bannon, has mentioned that The Telethon is set in 1954 and that the 20,000 goal was reached, and that Patrick was born two years afterwards.
  • According to a Discord conversation with Sarah Gibbons, who plays Jenny, the developers wanted her full name to be Jennifer Skywalker, though the name was later changed to Jennifer Hartley on her lanyard.

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