A placard can be seen, reading "Forget that Cripps feeling": this refers to Stafford Cripps, then-Chancellor of the Exchequer.
At the start of the film a radio announcement mentions Latin music performed by "Les Norman and his Bethnal Green Bambinos". This is an in-joke referring to Ealing producer Leslie Norman. Bethnal Green was an unattractive area in the East End of London.
Shirley's comment, "We'll fight them on the tramlines, we'll fight them in the local ..." is a take on Sir Winston Churchill's famous wartime speech, "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills..."
The isolation of Pimlico and its support by the common people of London is a reference to the Berlin blockade of June 1948 - May 1949.
The last Duke of Burgundy was Charles de Valois, otherwise known as Charles "The Rash" or "The Bold" or "The Terrible. The 44-year-old Duke was killed in the Swiss War in 1477, and France annexed Burgundy. Burgundy's holdings outside of France passed to Charles' daughter Marie, and her marriage to an Archduke of Austria (who later became Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor) saw the Burgundian inheritance pass to the Habsburg dynasty.
The original negatives of this and other Ealing comedies were lost in the Henderson's Film Laboratories fire in 1993.
The part of Prof. Hatton-Jones was written as a man and was offered to some male performers before it was decided to make the role female, and Margaret Rutherford was cast.
When the traders invade Pimlico, a comment is made about it becoming 'a spiv's paradise'. A spiv is/was a minor criminal who dealt in stolen or black market goods of questionable authenticity. Spivs were often well-dressed and were noted for offering goods at bargain prices, though the goods were generally not what they seemed or had been obtained illegally. The term was particularly common used for black-market dealers during the Second World War and in the post-war period.
Wix is referred to as a second Montagu Norman; he had served as Governor of the Bank of England between 1920 to 1944.