Emily Watson actually learned to play the cello as a child so was a natural for the part of Jacqueline du Pré. She practiced so long and so intensively for the film that she would frequently make her fingers bleed.
The lines, "...O body swayed to music, O brightening glance, / How can we know the dancer from the dance?", are from the poem, 'Among School Children' by William Butler Yeats.
We see Catalan cello master Pau Casals after a concert in Madrid in the early-1960s. But Pau Casals swore never to return to Spain from exile because Franco was still in power after the coup d'état and 1939's Spanish Civil War. Franco died in 1975, two years after Casals' own death in exile.
When a Japanese newspaper is shown publicizing Jackie's performance, the headline above the photo actually reported that the Japanese budget had been approved by parliament.
Hilary: I've given you everything. Every since we were little, everything you've asked for I've said yes. Jackie listen. Jackie... Jackie... I'm sorry.