There is a hint of biographical detail concerning Fred Thursday in this story. At the start, he recalls his visits to the Mile End Rivoli cinema, when he would buy one ticket and then secretively hold open the window in the Men's Toilet so "Chaz and Billy" could get in for free. These two are not identified in the story, but the Inspector's brother appears later in the story and is called Charlie. At the end, when he calls Fred "the best of us". Fred replies that "the best of us didn't come back", implying that there was a third Thursday brother - Billy - killed during the Second World War.
When Chief Inspector Thursday's brother asks him for a loan of money to keep his business afloat, Thursday asks him if he's "being leaned on" and mentions "the twins" - an unexplained reference to Ronnie and Reggie Kray, the twin brothers who dominated London's underworld throughout the 1960s and who both received life sentences after a sensational trial right at the end of the decade, in the year after this episode takes place. In a later scene, at the gymnasium operated by gangster Eddie Nero, there can be seen a poster on the wall referring to the days when the Kray twins were amateur boxing champions.
In the opening scenes featuring 'The Pharaoh's Curse' movie clips, the young archaeologist with the bushy mustache bears a striking resemblance to Shaun Evans, who plays the titular DS Endeavour Morse. It is Evans playing the part in the black and white movie.
There is a character in this episode called "Betty Persky" - the real name of Lauren Bacall.
This episode, concerning a horror film, has characters surnamed "Valdemar" and "Curwen" - the same surnames as characters played by Vincent Price in, respectively, "Tales Of Terror" and "The Haunted Palace". The character of "Inspector Atwill" spells his surname, unusually, with an 'i' instead of an 'e', suggesting a deliberate reference to the veteran Hollywood actor Lionel Atwill, who famously played the one-armed police inspector in "Son Of Frankenstein".