During the Spice Girls song routine Erin plays Ginger Spice, but she does not wear the traditional Union Jack dress Ginger Spice was known for. The production team felt that showing the Union Jack, a symbol of Britain, would be inappropriate in Derry during the tense and troubled time the story takes place. Instead, the costume designers made a peace symbol dress for Erin, to show that all people wanted peace for their land.
The talent show is based on Stars in Their Eyes, a popular TV show in the 1990s which did indeed have members of the public impersonating popular singers, complete with banter in the beginning as the audience tried to guess who they were going to be. Father Peter is doing a pretty good impression of Matthew Kelley's presenting style.
The charity the gang is trying to raise money for, Children in Need, is a real charity run by the BBC which culminates every year with a live telethon that has musical performances.
For the Spice Girls song routine the gang does in the school talent show Erin plays Ginger Spice, Orla portrays Sporty Spice, Clare is Baby Spice, Michelle plays Scary Spice, and James is Posh Spice.
During the talent show when the girls are performing as the Spice Girls, Erin (portraying Ginger Spice/Geri Halliwell) walks off stage during the performance, leaving the rest of the girls on stage to continue without her. This may be an unintentional reflection of when Geri Halliwell left the Spice Girls group in 1998 and the others remained a foursome until they ultimately disbanded.