When the Thursday family is watching tv at the beginning, they are passing around a box of Mackintosh's Good News chocolates; Fred asks "who's had the Savoy truffle?" The famous package of chocolates was the one whose inventory is listed in the famous George Harrison song "Savoy Truffle."
The story is set in 1967 and makes use of certain details pertinent to that era. The supermarket gives away green stamps with purchases, a new aspect of shopping in Britain in the late 1960s; the murder of the artist is achieved with the use of a tea-making machine (or "Teasmade"), a recent invention of the period; and, at the end, Morse gives the departing Jakes and his girlfriend some Premium Bonds as a gift for their unborn child, a very popular gift item in those days. The story also features the fictitious charity AMNOX, which obviously combines two real-life charities which first came to prominence in the 1960s and are still active today, Amnesty International and Oxfam.
Composer Barrington Pheloung works in both the original "Morse" theme and the "Lewis" closing theme in long, slow notes at various spots in the plot.
At the end, when Morse tells Thursday he's glad DS Jakes had found a measure of happiness, he mentions the difficult start endured by Jakes. This is a reference to the revelation, in the previous season's closer, that Jakes spent part of his childhood in the notorious home for boys, Blenheim Vale.
A brief glimpse of the death certificate for Morse's mother reveals that his late mother's name was Constance and that she died May 17, 1950. The blurred words may read - body found at home by son.