It is set in the office of the children's services department of fictional Elm Heath Council.
[1] In March 2014, Sky Arts announced that it was reprising its Playhouse Presents series of self-contained television plays.
Jo Brand and Morwenna Banks penned a script for what was hoped to be a pilot episode.
Sky Arts aired the episode but never commissioned it to series; so Brand, Banks, and comedic writer Will Smith re-developed it for Channel 4, who announced its commission in May 2016.
[4] Episode 5 of the second series was not aired as planned on 14 March 2018 to make space for a tribute to Professor Stephen Hawking, who had died a day earlier.