Although he wrote five episodes of the sequel series, "Lewis", and every episode thus far of the prequel series, "Endeavour", this is the only episode of "Inspector Morse" to be written by Russell Lewis.
This episode demonstrates writer Russell Lewis's fondness for making allusions to earlier books and films, something which is far more noticeable in his five scripts for "Lewis" and a trademark in all his scripts for "Endeavour". Here, Morse's mildly flirtatious conversation in a bookshop with Carol Osborne (whom he has met before) recalls Humphrey Bogart's banter with Dorothy Malone in "The Big Sleep", and his remark on seeing her first when entering the shop - "Of all the bookshops in all of Oxford!" - clearly brings to mind Bogart's famous line in "Casablanca" ("Of all the gin-joints in all the world...") when he is reunited with Ingrid Bergman. Later, when he defends Lewis to DCI Johnson ("Sergeant Lewis is nobody's fool, least of all yours!"), he is echoing a famous George Sanders line in "All About Eve".
First appearance of Dr.Laura Hobson.
Rudyard Kipling is referenced twice. The title of the episode, "The Way Through the Woods," is the title of a Kipling poem. Also, the Kipling poem "If" is quoted touchingly by Lewis: "If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster/And treat those two impostors just the same." And it indeed appears above the players entrance to Center Court at Wimbledon, the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.
When Strange tells Morse that he doesn't want him "outside the tent" on this case, he is making an unexplained (and foreshortened) allusion to a famous remark made by Lyndon Baines Johnson when he was new in the office of President of the United States. Johnson was urged by many of his advisers to replace J. Edgar Hoover (who was nearing his seventies) as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. However, Johnson re-appointed him, explaining (privately) that he'd prefer to have Hoover "inside the tent pissing out than on the outside pissing in".