Both plays depict members of the Cambridge spy ring and touch on their moral, political and aesthetic beliefs: the first shows Guy Burgess in exile in Moscow in 1958, seven years after absconding from Britain.

The play is based on the true story of a chance meeting of the actress Coral Browne, with Guy Burgess, a member of the Cambridge spy ring, who worked for the Soviet Union while serving with MI6 and fled to exile in Moscow to avoid arrest in 1951.

The film was directed by John Schlesinger For the stage version Bennett substantially rewrote the script, cutting out many minor characters.

Bennett portrays his continuing interrogation by Chubb, an MI5 officer; his work researching and restoring art; and an unexpected meeting with the Queen while he and an assistant are rehanging paintings at Buckingham Palace.

[6] In a televised documentary Caviar to the General broadcast on UK Channel 4 in 1990, shortly before her death, Coral Browne humorously described her reaction to seeing the stage version of An Englishman Abroad, particularly expressing her irritation at the costumes.