Gene (Philip Glenister) says to Alex (Keeley Hawes), "Your knickers headed south so fast they needed their own railcard." Railcards were introduced in the 70s originally to give reduced fares for students travelling by train. By the 80s this had been extended to all 17-25-year-olds.
Gene (Philip Glenister) says to Jim (Daniel Mays), "the best porn's on VHS." Jim says he prefers Betamax because of its better recording quality. Of the two competing home video formats, Betamax (or just "Beta") created by Sony and VHS created by JVC, VHS became the dominant system mainly due to its wide availability, but as Jim says, Beta did have a slightly higher recording quality.
The place where the diamonds are being held are Victoria Park, which ultimately leads the team to understand their world.
The place where Sam and the team arrest Sam's dad in Life on Mars, was the Victoria Park Hotel.
Throughout this episode, clocks and watches show the time as 9.06, except for the clock in the corridor near the lift to Jim (Daniel Mays)'s department, which shows the time as 7.50.
Chris (Marshall Lancaster) says he'll spoof Ray (Dean Andrews) to see who buys the first round of drinks at The Railway Arms. "Spoof" is a game of chance often played in pubs to establish who buys a round of drinks. It is basically a guessing game in which the participants place coins in their hands and an estimation of how many coins are collectively held by the group is made, until only two participants are left. Whoever wins/loses the last game buys the drinks.