Ashes to Ashes

The calendar wall chart created by Alex shows her date of arrival as Monday 20 July 1981; she implies that her parents will be killed in a car crash on Saturday 10 October 1981.

The Blitz: The Blitz was wine bar in Covent Garden, London, which served as the venue for a club night on Tuesdays in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Club nights were hosted by Steve Strange, with Rusty Egan as D.J. One of the regulars was George O'Dowd, later Boy George, who worked in the cloakroom and whom Alex thanks in this episode for taking her coat.

Visage: The band playing at the club that Alex and Danny Moore visit is Visage, who were performing their "new" single "Fade To Grey". The band was comprised of Steve Strange (appearing in cameo in this episode as the on-stage singer), Midge Ure, Billy Currie, John McGeogh, Rusty Egan and Dave Formula. The claim that this song is Visage's "new single" is an anachronism: "Fade To Grey" was released in November 1980, more than eight months before the setting of this episode.

Sandrine Gouriou (miscredited here as Gourrou), seen in cameo as the keyboard player, joined a reformed Visage in 2005.