Given the task of finding a suitable "Ridgemere Hall", production manager Janet Bone eventually settled on Clayesmore School, a boarding school in Iwerne Minster, Dorset. The school would not give permission for any of its floorboards to be pulled up however, and so the scene with Granddad undoing the fastening nut was filmed in a house that belonged to Ray Butt's girlfriend. The auction house seen at the beginning of the episode is the village hall of Sutton Waldron, Dorset.
John Sullivan's father was the inspiration for the smashed chandelier storyline. Working as a plumber in the 1930s, he and several others were fitting a new heating system into a stately home, and had to move some chandeliers. As with the Trotters, there was a mix up and the wrong one was undone and smashed. David Jason and Ray Butt agreed that the storyline ought to be used, meaning Sullivan had to write the script backwards, starting with just the end point and then working out how the Trotters would come to be in a mansion.
When interviewed on Parkinson (1971), Nicholas Lyndhurst mentioned that before shooting the chandelier scene he and David Jason were told by director Ray Butt if they laughed not only would it ruin the scene it would make it impossible to finish the episode, and they both would be fired. This is why when the chandelier falls both actors are focusing on each other. In actuality the scene was being shot with multiple cameras, meaning that had either of the actors broken character it would been trivial to edit around, but Butt let them think otherwise so as to further increase the tension and humour in the situation.
The smashed chandelier was made by props company Trading Post. Despite being a fake, it was still worth about £6,000 and only one was made, meaning the scene could only be filmed once.
It was initially intended that the chandelier gag would be the final scene in the episode, so after the incident David Jason and Nicholas Lyndhurst were required to stand and stare at each other in silence for 30 seconds while the camera rolled.