To Sir with Love, a film and musical linking two Gibraltarians 60 years apart - part one

60 years apart in age – but there is also nearly 60 years of time that unites them. Even though they had never met – only chatted on the phone – child actor Joseph (Joe, Pepe) Cuby and young drama student Matthew Navas were brought together by the character of Sapiano in the well-known timeless classic film from the 1960s ‘To Sir with Love’. Late last year Matthew Navas formed part of the production that premiered the musical of the same name at the Gillian Lynne Theatre on the West End, a production based on the 1967 film in which Joe Cuby starred in alongside well-known British singer Lulu and the American actor Sidney Poitier.

So, what were the chances that two Gibraltarians would take on the same character firstly in the film and then years later in the adaptation into a musical production – the film and the stage musical – nearly 60 years apart? Well, it happened. And here is the story of both and how Alice’s Table brought them together meeting for the first time when all three of us sat at the table looking back on Joe’s amazing 10 year film and television career as a child actor and young man, and Matthew who whilst still in drama college was selected and made his debut on the West End last year. Both playing the same role.

Joe Cuby is now retired in Gibraltar having left his film life to one side and a successful business career. Matthew Navas is a budding young actor, a student at Italia Conti where he is taking a BA (Hons) Acting (Musical Theatre) course. His class became the first to take on such a project late last year when the musical ‘To Sir with Love’ premiered in London.

They were both chuffed to meet each other for the first time and were full of admiration for one another. They immediately hit it off and got chatting about their stories nearly 60 years apart.

Joe right from the start was convinced that Matthew would do great in the industry, and Matthew was keen to hear all of his stories about the films and his involvement from an early age. I asked some questions but mostly I listened to their banter.

“I think it’s just great that he played the same part as me on the stage. I really think he has a big future. It is amazing that we are both from Gibraltar. It is quite something that it happened – a brilliant coincidence? Maybe. Or, maybe not,” Joe acknowledges with delight. To which Matthew answers: “It is just wild. Let me tell you an anecdote about meeting Lulu. I told her about you Joe and about you being in the film playing the same part, and she said to me ‘Matthew there are no coincidences’ and added, ‘everything happens for a reason and there are no coincidences’. So, I guess it just had to be.”

Joe nods in agreement as the banter continues. It was on telling his family he was playing the character of Sapiano in the musical version – that Matthew learnt how Joe had acted and played the same character in the film. Matthew tells Joe how his granny researching who had played the part originally recognised his name.

“Joe it was my granny who told me that Sapiano in the film had been played by another Gibraltarian – I just couldn’t believe it – and I said to her ‘no way, how can that happen’. I just felt it was such a crazy coincidence, and here we are,” Matthew tells him. As they exchange notes on how each had been directed in their character it very soon becomes apparent that they had played very similar Sapianos’.

“A boy from the East End of London – very cheeky, naughty and full of life – not paying attention to the teacher,” Matthew interacts. To which Joe replies, “yes, that was it just having fun and misbehaving. But all that would eventually lead to respect for the young teacher as the story developed.”

Both men would play the part of Sapiano at around the same age - Joe was 22 and Matthew was 21.

Let us recall how - To Sir with Love - is a 1959 autobiographical novel by E. R. Braithwaite set in the East End of London. A true story of a man who takes up a teaching post in a secondary school and which gives insight into the politics of race and class in postwar London .In 1967 this book was made into a film dealing with all the social and racial issues in a secondary school in the East End of London and which starred Sidney Poitier, Judy Geeson, Patricia Routledge and Lulu. She would record the now classic song of the same name – To Sir with Love. Poitier’s portrayal of Mark Thackeray, a charismatic schoolteacher to troubled youth, would see him become the first black actor to win a Golden Globe Award. The title song by Lulu, peaked at the top of the US Billboard Hot 100 chart for five weeks in the autumn of 1967. It became the best-selling single in the US that year. In the UK – well this may come as a bit of a surprise – it was never officially released as a single. It was never on the A side (in the days of single vinyls) but as the B side to her hit - Let’s Pretend - which peaked at number 11 on the UK Singles Chart. And yet, as we now know, the song - To Sir with Love - over the years, has become one of Lulu’s signature songs.

‘To Sir, With Love – A New Musical’ would run for two concert premiere performances at the Gillian Lynne Theatre last November with music and lyrics by John Farrar and Kara DioGuardi. Lulu was also in the stage musical at the Gillian Lynne Theatre, and played the part of Dale Evans, and where the leading role was played by five-time Emmy Award winner and Grammy nominee Wayne Brady. The young adult company, all came from Italia Conti – and this is where Matthew Navas comes in as a student of Italia Conti and where he was given the part of Sapiano. For Joe meanwhile, filming got going in June 1966 – and he clearly recalls it was just before the World Cup of 1966.

“All the players came to the studio to see one of the filming days and that’s why I remember it so clearly,” he offers. Joe tells of his respect for the actor Sidney Poitier who was already a big name in the industry with performances in films like – The Defiant Ones (1958), Porgy and Bess (1959), Raisin in the Surf (1961), Lilies of the Field (1963), and A Patch of Blue (1965). Lulu had found fame two years earlier with her first hit - Shout (1964), followed by - Leave a Little Love (1965), and The Boat That I Row (1967).

On Alice’s Table over the next two weeks we chat to Joe and look back on his career, and chat to Matthew about being at drama school and the great opportunity in being selected for this musical project.

Joseph Cuby was born 25 August 1944. He was born in Tangier during the evacuation in WWII and arrived at Gibraltar when he was only a few days old. His parents were Jack (from Gibraltar) and Raquel (from Portugal). His father was a merchant dealing in import and exports but sadly lost his business locally in the early 1950s - hence his move to the UK to start a new life. He left first and then a year later in October 1955 the family joined him. Joe was just 11 years of age. It would not take long before he was noticed for his acting ability and went on to become a child actor working in films and television from the age of 13.

First, he takes us back to the early years growing up in Gibraltar - very happy years with his brothers Sidney and David. The move to the UK for him would not be a happy one though and for over a year, especially at school, he was bullied because he looked different and because of his accent. This was the reason he got sent to boarding school. Right up to then the move had been a great culture shock for him. But then he found acting and it would change his life. Throughout his life the strong links with Gibraltar remained and when his mother returned to live locally, he often visited and returned to his roots. Slowly he saw his whole family return. Following his acting career, he turned to the furniture trade, and later in 1978 set up a very successful publishing company (EMP- Estate Publishing Publications) which his son now runs. He has five children – two from his first wife and three from Brenda (well known for her work with GibSams locally) whom he has been married to for 33 years having met her in Edgware in a lift over Christmas – and they never looked back. They set up home in Gibraltar in 2007.

But let’s pause and let me take you back to his early acting days – to the boy actor - and his first lucky break in the profession at just 13 years of age. He was at boarding school in Brighton and was taking part in a school play after his Latin teacher encouraged him to join the drama class. A reporter from the Brighton Gazette was there and reported that Joseph Cuby “was quite a talent”.

“I got noticed and my father was approached because they wanted me to do a television film called ‘A Boy Without a Country’ playing Vito in an episode of the ITC classic series ‘The Four Just Men’ featuring the British actor Jack Hawkins – so in 1960 I auditioned and got the part playing alongside the famous English actor of the day who was Jack Hawkins,” Joe continues.

The Corona Academy knew they would be able to get him more parts in films and on television and so he joined the academy. So, he left school and went to drama school in Chiswick in the 1950s. The Corona Academy had been founded in 1950 as a performing arts academy in West London. An academy which Joe recalls produced the likes of – “Richard O’Sullivan, Denis Waterman, Susan George; a lot of people who became quite famous”.

With his Mediterranean looks and accent he would go on to play many foreign parts, and was continually in work.

Man of the World (1963) - was a television drama series which ran for two years starring Craig Stevens – a world-renowned photographer whose assignments lead him into investigating mysterious goings-on to different countries such as Spain where he meets Luis the bullfighter played by Joe. He also starred in numerous television shows of the 1960s including: The Loretta Young Show (1959), Formula for Danger (1960), The Four Just Men (1959), Danger Man (1960), The Grunch (1961), Sir Francis Drake (1962), The Saint (1962), Nine House to Rama (1963), Goliath and the Rebel Slave (1963), Swingers’ Paradise (1964), A Man Called Harry Brent (1965), Zone One (1965), Court Martial (1966), Emergency Ward 10 (1967), The Prisoner (1967), and The Wednesday Play (1969). And there were many more.

He also starred in several films including: Foreign Field (1959), Danger Man (1960), The Barbarians (1960), Wonderful Life (1964) and The Trygon Factor (1966).

The news reached Gibraltar of this boy wonder and he was often in the news – the headlines read: ‘Local Boy’s Success in Pictures’ which reported “it must be a wonderful thing for a 14 year old boy to make films with famous stars like Jack Hawkins and Loretta Young’, and which quotes a Brighton critic who reported ‘Cuby possesses a stagecraft remarkable for his age, a talent which should bring him fame’. The Brighton Hove Gazette in 1958 described him as the ‘Boy with a Big Future’. Other headlines a year later read – ‘Only 15 and already he has the nobility of an Olivier.’ His films were seen locally – The Rialto Cinema highlighting his performance in the film ‘Conspiracy of Hearts’ with Lilli Palmer and Sylvia Syms.

‘Conspiracy of Hearts’ was a big part in which he played the part of Joseph. During World War II, Mother Superior Katharine (Lilli Palmer) oversees a picturesque Italian convent and makes it her duty to smuggle out the Jewish children from a nearby concentration camp. The nuns in her charge react in different ways: While sensitive novice Sister Mitya (Sylvia Syms) takes a special interest in the refugees, worldly Sister Gerta (Yvonne Mitchell) is reluctant to get involved at all. After the Nazis occupy the convent, their situation becomes dire.

Over the years he worked with many other top stars in film and television including as we know Loretta Young, Ann Todd, Roger Moore and Sir Cliff Richard and The Shadows. Joe was in one of the early Sir Cliff Richard films ‘Wonderful Life’ together with The Shadows in which the boys lose their jobs as entertainers on a luxury liner and are cast adrift - eventually landing in the Canary Islands. Filming, Joe recalls, was in the Canary Islands themselves, and he had some screen time with the man himself. In the film Cliff and the boys (The Shadows) happen upon a film crew making a movie, Cliff is hired as a stunt man and quickly becomes enraptured by the beautiful leading lady – and Joe is one of the cameramen.

Joe’s career spanned over a decade and he had many exciting opportunities given to him as he travelled the world to further his acting dream. One of the achievements he is most proud of is having been able to help the family with his earnings and is still proud of the fact that he was able to put his brothers through school as well.

As he reflects on those years he says: “It just happened. I did not know what I wanted to do. I was always playing the foreign boy and as I grew up, I did not know what was going to happen. Joe with his European looks and accent was very popular and was often found playing roles of foreigners.”

As he grew up and found himself out of work – the parts were no longer there – the child actor was growing up. He got a job selling furniture over the phone – it would prove so successful that he went on to start his own business at the age of 22. He then gave up acting and became a businessman, and entrepreneur.

But years later he was still remembered for his acting and the television series (which never really took off) - El Dorado – (which was to be filmed in Spain) came knocking. By then Joe had another successful career and he turned it down.

Today Joe is happy in retirement – but now in his 80s he remains active, trains regularly and enjoys time out with his friends, and very much a family man enjoys spending time with his family. He admits he likes watching his old movies, and reminiscing. And why not? What he achieved in the 1950s and 1960s was tremendous – with no acting training his was a natural talent which got him places. All this time Matthew was sat listening to his story – as together they went through his scrap book and the many pictures and press cuttings.

“If you were selected to be part of this musical,” Joe tells Matthew. “It means they saw something in you, and you will get there. They saw something in me when I was young and look where it got me. I am very proud of what I did all those years ago. And you will be too.”

Next week: We continue with Joe’s story, visit ‘To Sir with Love – The Musical’ and learn about Matthew.