Trivia / Please Sir!

• Banned Episode: "Black Power" from Series 4 was skipped when the series was rerun on ForcesTV in 2020 due to focusing on Potter's racial prejudices.
• Blooper: Early on in "Two and Two Make Nun", Maureen is pottering around the staff room trying to spread the word of God. After talking to Price, she goes to talk to Smithy next, but Liz Gebhardt forgets the character's name and also calls him "Mr. Price".
• Cast the Runner-Up: Robin Askwith played Eddie in the Series 4 episode, "A.W.O.L.", but had been considered to play Duffy before the casting of Peter Cleall.
• Creator Backlash:
  • LWT didn't seem too pleased with the series' success. Their office reception would have photos of all their hit shows, except for Please Sir! and the Spin-Off, The Fenn Street Gang.
  • Deryck Guyler wasn't happy with the cast changes made in Series 4.
• Creator Couple: Background teacher/Living Prop Mr. Wyatt was played by Gregory Scott, the husband of Joan Sanderson.
• Dawson Casting: The youngest of the 'student' actors was Malcolm McFee, at 19, when the show first started. Part of the show's humor came from the students looking, in some cases, older than their teachers.
• Hostility on the Set: Producer/director Mark Stuart used to lose it on-set if one of the actors messed up a line or needed to retake a scene, seeing as editing was rather a complicated procedure back when the series was being made.
• I Am Not Spock: As the series went on, John Alderton grew resentful towards the show as no matter what other roles he played, critics would always compare them to his role as Hedges.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Flashy ladies' man David Ffitchett-Brown was played by Richard Warwick, a gay man.
• The Other Darrin: When the original 5C pupils returned in the Series 4 episode "Old Fennians Day", Penny Spencer and Malcolm McFee didn't return, so Sharon and Craven were now played by Carol Hawkins (who had taken over the role in the film) and Leon Vitali (who had taken over the role in Series 1 of The Fenn Street Gang).
• Throw It In!: Writers John Esmonde and Bob Larbey encouraged the cast to ad-lib and add to their characterisation as they saw fit.
• Wag the Director: Potter was scripted as a Cockney, but Deryck Guyler insisted on playing him as a Lancastrian.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Before the series was written, one of John Esmonde and Bob Larbey's other ideas for a sitcom was a series about a failed actor and his faithful valet.
  • The series was first offered to The BBC, who turned it down due to the corporation taking offense to Dennis being "educationally subnormal".
  • Robin Askwith was considered for Duffy before Peter Cleall was cast.
  • Potter was at first conceived as a Cockney character before Deryck Guyler was cast.
  • The final three episodes of Series 3 were supposed to be filmed in colour, but had to be done in black and white due to the ITV Colour Strike.
• You Look Familiar: Panalal from "Panalal Passes By" was played by George Georghiou, who played a different uncredited pupil in many episodes of the first three series.

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