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I briefly mentioned Poitier on the ITV weekday afternoon films thread, but I think that out of all the roles that he played, his role as Mark Thackeray in To Sir, With Love was the one which, I believe, was the influence for Please Sir! and certainly its movie spin off. I think that one almost feels sorry for his character when a class full of 1960s teenagers (Lulu included of course) happen to be in his charge. These days, teachers dress more liberally than their pupils because of school uniform barriers, but turn the clock back half a century and it seemed to be the other way round.
Poitier helped to modernise acting as we would probably know it, and at such a time when the film was being made, it wasn't surprising that it would happen around that time. Indeed, comparison-wise, John Alderton played the Poitier role in Please Sir! while Michael Percival was his counterpart in Grange Hill.
I have just looked him up on Wikipedia and he is still with us at the age of 92 - he was knighted by the Queen in 1974. I think that he is a timeless person. And his daughter is called Sydney (although the slightly different spelling).
He was very much a reformer in his time.
Poitier helped to modernise acting as we would probably know it, and at such a time when the film was being made, it wasn't surprising that it would happen around that time. Indeed, comparison-wise, John Alderton played the Poitier role in Please Sir! while Michael Percival was his counterpart in Grange Hill.
I have just looked him up on Wikipedia and he is still with us at the age of 92 - he was knighted by the Queen in 1974. I think that he is a timeless person. And his daughter is called Sydney (although the slightly different spelling).
He was very much a reformer in his time.
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