Who sang to sir with love in the movie

The producers sought permission to film in the British Museum for the outing sequence, were denied only a few days prior to filming, although stills photography was permitted. Stills photographers Laurie Ridley and Dennis C. Stone were given a free hand, following the cast throughout the museum, creating the iconic montage sequence for the movie.

The film did so unexpectedly well in the States that Columbia Pictures did market research to find out why so many people had gone to it. Their answer: Sidney Poitier.

Lulu performed the title song, which went straight to number one in the U.S.

Based on the semi-autobiographical novel by E.R. Braithwaite and his experiences teaching in a tough secondary school in a poor area of 1950s East London, the film's portrayal of Braithwaite's character may not have been entirely accurate. After the film was released, several former pupils of Braithwaite's claimed that the real man was a stern and tough disciplinarian who often used corporal punishment in class and was far from the sympathetic and likeable character portrayed by Sidney Poitier.

The band at the dance, The Mindbenders, was the original backing band for Wayne Fontana. Fontana and the band had a hit with "Game of Love" while the group themselves had a hit with "Groovy Kind of Love". Eric Stewart from The Mindbenders went onto greater success as part of 10cc.

While it wasn't identified in the movie, the book explains what was burning in the classroom stove that caused Thackeray to lose his temper: a sanitary pad.

Judy Geeson and Lulu were reunited with Sidney Poitier in the television sequel To Sir, with Love II (1996) directed by Peter Bogdanovich.

The South African Publications Control Board banned the film, claiming it was "offensive to see a black male teaching a class of white children".

When the students tell him he's like them, art imitates life. Poitier was sent to the United States to live with his brother at the age of fifteen as he was getting into too much trouble at home in Nassau, Bahamas. He knew what it was like to be young, poor, uneducated, and unemployed, after being in trouble at school. At sixteen, he headed for New York City and even took to sleeping in bus terminals while homeless.

The film was held from release for more than a year until Columbia Pictures decided to open it in Los Angeles, California in the summer of 1967, where it really broke through.

The London bus, LLU 829, which appears in several sequences at the start of the film and in some later sequences, still survives today as a preserved vintage vehicle, and can be seen at the East Anglia Transport Museum, Carlton Colville, Lowestoft, England.

Sidney Poitier's deal for the picture, was a flat fee of $30,000 plus 10% of the box-office gross. The film's huge unexpected success meant that he eventually earned the equivalent of $45m in today's money.(2021).

Surprisingly, this film's iconic theme song, a huge international hit as performed by Lulu (who sings it on-screen in the movie) was not nominated as Best Original Song for either the Academy Awards nor the Golden Globes. The Oscar went instead to "Talk to the Animals" from the box-office bomb Doctor Dolittle (1967).

When Mark Thackeray (Sidney Poitier) talks with his students about himself, what he tells them actually mirrors his own life. He actually was a janitor and dishwasher for a time. When he says in the film that his speech was sort of a patois form of English, in real life his speech was the same, when he first moved to New York from the Bahamas as a young man, he learned how to become well-spoken by listening to drama programs on the radio.

Lulu receives an "introducing" credit.

Lulu's title song, "To Sir With Love" finished the year number one on the Billboard Top One-Hundred List. "Talk to the Animals" won the Academy Award, and none of the songs nominated for Best Original Song Oscars broke into 1967's top 100. Only the nominated "The Look of Love" was number 36 in the following year's Billboard List.

The title song was relegated to the B-side in the UK, where the A-side, "The Boat That I Row", went to #7 for Lulu.

The first movie role for Patricia Routledge.

Michael Des Barres, who plays Williams, the student always wearing sunglasses, went on to become a busy character actor, minor rock star, and husband to Pamela Des Barres; considered the most famous groupie in rock history.

The school building in the movie still exists, but has been converted to apartments. It may be found at 69 Johnson Street, London. It's just north of the Shadwell Basin.

Judy Geeson's character "Pamela Dare", one of the students in the film, was named after Sidney Poitier's daughter, Pamela..

The first movie role for Michael Des Barres.

Filming was completed on May 31, 1966.

When Weston is complaining about the US President and Churchill's Funeral in 1965, it was indeed a controversial decision at the time, not to send VP Humphrey at least even if LBJ was too ill to travel.

E.R. Braithwaite, on whose memoir the film was based, disliked the film as he felt it over-sentimentalised the story and his character.

The poem Pamela reads from in Thackery's first class is "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" by Lord Byron. The poem she reads from in a later class is Byron's "Love on the Island".

The actress who plays the role of Pamela Dare's mother, Ann Bell is only ten years older than Judy Geeson playing her daughter.

In 1973, an Egyptian play was adapted from the movie to become one of the most popular plays ever in the Arab world. The play is "Madrasat al Moushagibien / or the School of Rioters". In May 2021 the play was turned to color after 48 years being played in black and white.

Christopher Chittell, who plays "Potter", is best known as "Eric Pollard" on Emmerdale Farm (1972).

Included among the American Film Institute's 2004 list of 400 movies nominated for the top 100 America's Greatest Music in the Movies for the song "To Sir with Love."

The song "To Sir With Love" was used in the first season of Glee (2009), when the club members thank Mr. Schuester for all he has done.

Avis Bunnage had a small role that was removed in editing.

Final film of Elna Pearl.

As a pointed indication of the complete change in attitude towards him, the signed card Sir receives with his going away present looks to have been created by Denham.