The Small World of Sammy Lee — Circle & Star Presents

CIRCLE & STAR PRESENTS · ONE NIGHT ONLY

Anthony Newley in The Small World of Sammy 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.

The critics of 1963 walked straight past it.
Sixty-three years on, it looks like one of the finest British films of its decade — and far too few people have seen it on a screen.

Wolfgang Suschitzky shot it, eight years before he shot Get Carter. Ken Hughes took it out onto the real streets — the clubs, the caffs, the doorways of a London still patching itself up after the war. It began as Sammy, a half-hour BBC play in 1958 with Newley alone on screen; the film opens the door and lets him run. And the year it came out, the song he co-wrote, What Kind of Fool Am I?, won the Grammy for Song of the Year. He spent that year playing a man with nothing left — and gave the performance he should be remembered for.

Sammy Lee has five hours to find three hundred pounds, or the men he owes will take it out of his hide. A Soho strip-club compère runs the length of his own small world — bookies, brothers, last favours — in Anthony Newley's blistering race against the clock. The London nobody sent home on a postcard — all neon, nerve and borrowed time.

Before the lights go down

Jason Solomons — film critic, broadcaster and author, former chair of the London Film Critics' Circle — explores the film with
Tara Newley — daughter of Anthony Newley and Joan Collins, born in October 1963, the year of the film — and
Mel Hughes — daughter of the director, Ken Hughes.

Then Steve Furst — actor, comedian and Circle & Star's artistic director — sings Newley. Feeling Good, Pure Imagination, Goldfinger, The Candy Man: you know the songs. Not everyone knows they're his.

How the evening runs
6:30pm · Doors — come up and find a seat
7:00pm · The conversation
Then · Steve Furst sings Newley
Interval
The film — 107 minutes, in full, lights low, phones away
Out by 10:30pm

The Small World of Sammy Lee (1963) · Written and directed by Ken Hughes · Photographed by Wolfgang Suschitzky · With Anthony Newley, Julia Foster, Robert Stephens, Warren Mitchell, Wilfrid Brambell and Miriam Karlin · 107 minutes · Black and white · Cert 12

Thursday 17th December 2026 · Doors 6:30pm · 7:00pm start
28 Heath Street, Hampstead, London NW3 6TE · Hampstead Station, Northern Line — thirty seconds from the door
£22 · 55 seats

The whole story of the night: reelnotes.circleandstar.live

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