Anthony Newley as Sammy Lee, coat flying, running down an empty Soho street in 1963

Nº.001 · The Watching Salon · One night only Anthony Newley in

The Small WorldofSammy Lee

One of Britain’s great overlooked films — Soho, 1963, five hours and three hundred pounds. Seen whole, for one December night, in a room of fifty-five.

Book a seat →The evening

Thursday 17 December 2026Doors 6:30pm55 seats · £22

One night only · 55 seats · Hosted by Jason Solomons · Produced by Justin Bovington

IThe overlooked classic

The critics of 1963 walked straight past it.

Sixty-three years on, The Small World of Sammy Lee looks like one of the finest British films of its decade — and far too few people have seen it on a screen. Four reasons it deserves one December night.

The same eye

Shot by the man who shot Get Carter.

Wolfgang Suschitzky photographed it in 1963 — eight years before Get Carter. The same unblinking eye, already out on the British street.

The real streets

They didn’t build Soho. They shot it.

The clubs, the caffs, the doorways, the East End — a London still patching itself up after the war, before it swung and long before it was sold.

One man, let out

It began as a one-man television play.

Ken Hughes wrote Sammy for the BBC in 1958 — half an hour, Newley alone on screen. The film opens the door and lets him run.

Newley at his pomp

The year his song won a Grammy, he made this.

What Kind of Fool Am I? took Song of the Year in 1963. He spent that year playing a man with nothing left — and gave the performance he should be remembered for.

Sammy Lee alone in an empty Soho street, arms spread wide

Soho · 1963

Most of it has gone.

The film is where it still stands.

IIThe man in front of the camera

You know the songs. Not everyone knows they’re his.

Hackney boy, child actor, pop idol, Broadway writer, the voice a young David Bowie borrowed. Anthony Newley’s fingerprints are all over seventy years of popular culture — and somewhere along the way, his name slipped off the label.

Anthony Newley and Julia Foster in The Small World of Sammy Lee — Anthony Newley & Julia Foster · 1963

The songbookEvery one written with Leslie Bricusse.

Feeling GoodNina Simone, 1965then Muse, Michael Bublé and half the world since
Pure ImaginationGene Wilder, 1971Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
GoldfingerShirley Bassey, 1964the lyric, to John Barry’s music
The Candy ManSammy Davis Jr, 1972three weeks at number one in America
What Kind of Fool Am I?Song of the Year, 1963Stop the World — I Want to Get Off
Who Can I Turn To?1964The Roar of the Greasepaint — The Smell of the Crowd
Gonna Build a Mountain1961Stop the World — I Want to Get Off

A life in frames

Hackney to Hollywood, and back to Soho.

1931

Hackney

Born in Homerton, East London, on 24 September.

1948

The Artful Dodger

Sixteen years old, in David Lean’s Oliver Twist.

1960

Two number ones

Why and Do You Mind? — both top of the British charts in the same year.

1960

Gurney Slade

The Strange World of Gurney Slade — six episodes of television so odd it is often called a forerunner of The Prisoner.

1961

Stop the World

Writes it with Leslie Bricusse, directs it, stars in it. The West End, then Broadway.

1963

Sammy Lee

Makes this film. Marries Joan Collins. Their daughter Tara is born in October.

1964

Goldfinger

The lyric for Bassey — and Feeling Good, written for The Roar of the Greasepaint.

1967

A young Bowie

David Bowie’s first album arrives wearing Newley’s voice — and Bowie said as much himself.

1971

Willy Wonka

Pure Imagination and The Candy Man — and an Oscar nomination for the score.

1989

Hall of Fame

Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

1999

The songs go on

Dies in Florida, aged sixty-seven. The songs never stopped.

IIIHow the evening runs

A conversation, the songs, and then the film — seen whole.

6:30

Doors

6:30
Doors
Come up and find a seat. Fifty-five of them, every one close.
Part One · 7:00
The conversation
Jason Solomons opens the film up with Tara Newley and Mel Hughes — the picture, the man in it, and the man behind the camera.
Part One · Then
The songs
Steve Furst sings Newley — a handful of the great songs, live, a few feet from your seat.
Interval
A breath
A short break before the lights go down.
Part Two · The film
The picture, whole
The Small World of Sammy Lee, in full — 107 minutes, lights low, phones away, watched in company.
10:30
Out into Hampstead
Heath Street in December, with Soho, 1963, still running in your head.

Part One — the story. Part Two — the picture, whole.

IVBefore the lights go down

Your host · Part One

Jason Solomons

Film critic, broadcaster and author — former chair of the London Film Critics’ Circle

He leads the conversation — how the picture got made, why it slipped through the net, and why it still cuts.

in conversation with

Tara Newley

Daughter of Anthony Newley and Joan Collins — born in October 1963, the year of the film

On the man on the screen — the performer, the father, and the Soho he carried with him.

Mel Hughes

Daughter of the director, Ken Hughes — who went on to make Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

On the film from the inside — the shoot, the streets, and the man who took a camera out into them.

Live in the room · Part One

Steve Furst

Actor, comedian and Circle & Star’s artistic director — Little Britain, Matilda in the West End, Fagin in Oliver! at Leeds Playhouse

Then he sings Newley — the songs the man on the screen gave the world, in a room of fifty-five.

Nº.001The Watching SalonSoho · 1963

The original 1963 Seven Arts one-sheet for The Small World of Sammy Lee — 1963 · the original sheet

VThe film