Others who were tried for the part included Nigel Planer (who would later guest star) and Angus Deayton (who had already worked with Renwick and director Susan Belbin on "One Foot in the Grave"). Almost a dozen actors were considered before Susan Belbin saw Alan Davies during a rehearsal for a sitcom. Davies was invited round to talk to Renwick and "turned up in his duffle coat with straggly hair and a broad grin was self-evidently the closest match yet to Creek as we had always seen him".