Fellowes strove to make the script free of anachronisms, to the point where he became upset when actor Jim Broadbent ad-libbed and told the Duke of Wellington to "Enjoy the meal" during a dinner scene, a phrase not proper for the time period. The writer commented, "Everything I have put into it is based entirely on fact. It just happens to be a story that not many people are familiar with." Fellowes has remarked that while he would not alter the "fundamental truth", such as the characters' real relationships to each other, he strove to "use episodes to illustrate the journey you're taking your characters, and with them, your audience".