Actor Allusion: In Wentworth Prison, Black Jack Randall offers Jamie the chance to die honorably if he agrees to have sex with him. Among the various methods, Randall mentions falling on his own sword like Brutus. Tobias Menzies famously portrayed Brutus in HBO's Rome.
Award Category Fraud: For the 2015 Saturn Awards, Sam Heughan was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, despite playing a lead character. Notably Tobias Menzies was nominated in the Best Actor category so Heughan's classification may have been to be avoid the two competing. This was all but confirmed after Menzies left and Heughan started being nominated in the Saturn Awards' Best Actor category.
California Doubling: Averted in the first and the second half of season 2 as it was filmed in Scotland. Play straight when Scotland stood in for France, England and the USA while South Africa stood in for Jamaicanote The Signet Library in Edinburgh was used for the interior of the Governor's Palace.
Casting Gag: Frazer Hines portrayed Wentworth Prison's governor, and also previously played Doctor Who character Jamie McCrimmon, who was the main inspiration for Jamie Frasernote Though his last name was not based on the actor's first name. That was completely coincidental.
The Cast Showoff: Richard Rankin as Roger sings and plays guitar frequently in Season 5, sometimes to serenade Brianna or to entertain Jemmy.
Fake American: Sophie Skelton (British) plays Brianna Fraser (American).
Separated-at-Birth Casting: Lauren Lyle as Marsali looks a lot like Nell Hudson as her mother Laoghaire.
General Trivia
Diana Gabaldon and George R. R. Martin are quite well acquainted (both living in New Mexico) and funnily enough, their respectiveseries also have quite a few things in common. If you squint you can even see a parallel between the female characters named Brienne/Brianna - both are taller-than-average women who have to deal with the prejudices of men. On a meta level, both authors have famously spoken out against fanfiction on their works. Both authors have also had their books turned into TV shows named after the first volume of the series.
The show is infamous in certain quarters for not being shown in Scotland - ironically. The reason? UK Prime Minister at the time, David Cameron, begged Sony to embargo it as it premiered during the 2014 Scottish Independence campaign and he was afraid it would enflame Scots into a patriotic Yes Vote. Sony agreed and the show has been absent from Scottish screens ever since.
