Alun Owen travelled with the Beatles on a concert tour. He was to write a fictional story at first, based on how the band interacted with other people, but Owen decided the best story to tell was real, based on what he saw. The "grandfather" character (played by Wilfrid Brambell) was added to appeal to older viewers. Brambell was a popular television actor, who starred in "Steptoe and Son" (a forerunner of "Sanford and Son") as a "dirty old" junk dealer.