[5] Although the song is not specifically about the TV drama, it alludes to its themes and location: Chris Difford wrote the lyrics in New Orleans while Squeeze were on tour.

Difford has been quoted as saying he took the lead from Roxy Music's "Virginia Plain", in which the title also appeared only at the end.

Glenn Tilbrook has said the music was partly inspired by the Bob Dylan song "Positively 4th Street", and the lack of a chorus or lyrical repetition—unusual in a mainstream pop hit—was due to Tilbrook feeling a repeated section would upset the flow of Difford's narrative lyrics.

The language of the song uses a terse, acerbic 'working-class' humour in lines like …where she dealt out the rations With some or other passions I said, "You are a lady" "Perhaps," she said, "I may be" At first, it is an idyllic story of proletarian happiness: the couple's courtship swiftly moves into living together; they have a child; the man gets a job, saves money.

[7] Difford's performance of the song live on Platform 10 at Clapham Junction railway station was featured on the BBC Radio 4 programme Lyrical Journey in September 2011.