Ian Holm also played Napoleon Bonaparte in Time Bandits (1981) and The Emperor's New Clothes (2001). According to Holm his "Napoleon and Love" costume was "recycled" for his role reprise in "Time Bandits".
Ian Holm had played Napoleon's nemesis Horatio Nelson in the 1970 West End stage production of Terence Rattigan's "Bequest to the Nation".
Billie Whitelaw as Empress Josephine here has her second turn as the wife of a French monarch, having in Start the Revolution Without Me (1970) played (a caricature of) Marie Antoinette.