Lubin's escape, involving three balaclava-clad men breaking into the prison, copies of keys, and using an empty fuel tanker as a getaway vehicle (with the fugitive concealed inside), closely resembles the 12 August 1964 escape of Train-Robber Charlie Wilson from HMP Winson Green, Birmingham.
Callan calls the automatic pistols he, Cross and Mellor are equipped with as 'Makarov 9mms' - but they don't look like Makarovs, and more closely resemble the Hungarian Tokagypt-58, which was an adaptation of the Soviet Tula-Tokarev 9mm pistol.