[8] According to Craig Murray, the former ambassador to Uzbekistan, Big Talk Productions tried to buy the rights to his book, Murder in Samarkand, for a film and believes the series, a "state-sponsored satire", is based on it.

[8] In his opinion, the FCO had backed it to "defuse the horror of our alliance with Uzbekistan and make it banal, accepted and safe".

[9] Throughout the series the Union Flag always appears upside-down: in the title sequence, outside the embassy and on the ambassador's Land Rover.

[11] According to Alison Graham of the Radio Times: "There are some funny bits, but it's a drama with a light touch, rather than an out-and-out comedy.

"[12] The Daily Telegraph journalist Jake Wallis Simons commented that "the two leading actors, Messrs David Mitchell and Robert Webb, brought the thing alive."

"[13] While considering it inferior to the same lead performers' Peep Show, Ellen E. Jones wrote in The Independent that "Webb was a particular pleasure to watch.