Bells (Blackadder) marks the first appearance of the Bob/Kate and Flashheart archetypes that appear again in "Blackadder Goes Forth". Rik Mayall, who played Lord Flashheart, allegedly designed the character's costume himself. John Lloyd has said that Mayall virtually rewrote his part to feature "loads of jokes", which annoyed the writers, Curtis and Elton. It was the only episode of the series to feature location filming, at Wilton House in Wiltshire. The music performed as Blackadder courts "Bob" is Vaughan Williams' "Fantasia on Greensleeves". In 1993, in conjunction with Comic Relief, this episode was given away free on cassette tape with boxes of
Blackadder Goes Forth tried to act this script out, you would find out things about it." Ben Elton stated that by opening it up, they allowed the cast to question every aspect of the script. During "Blackadder Rides Again", Tony Robinson likewise recalls that these script meetings could be uncomfortable, and has been less reserved speaking about the script rehearsals since. In an interview with "The Daily Telegraph" he suggests that although relations between the actors were generally cordial "There was bad feeling between the writers and the performers—the writers felt we were unilaterally altering the script and altering it for the worse.