Hylda Baker receives an "introducing" credit
Dudley Moore played the piano on the soundtrack.
Albert Finney learned to use a lathe during filming.
At the end of the film, Arthur and Doreen are sitting on a grassy bank overlooking a building site where an estate of new houses is being built. This was a film set built especially for the film in Wembley, London, by Nottingham builders Simms Sons & Cooke.
British rock band the Arctic Monkeys were heavily influenced by this film. The title of their debut album "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not" is a direct quote from the movie, and many of the songs were inspired by Albert Finney's character. Also the art design of the album was influenced by the realist images of British working class neighborhoods and night life in "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning".
First film of Colin Blakely.
One of the reasons why Freddie Francis was brought on board as cinematographer was his experience which executive producer Harry Saltzman felt would be helpful for a novice director like Karel Reisz.
The censors were not too keen on the scene where Arthur wakes up on Sunday morning in bed with his mistress as the scene directly implies extra-marital sex, a notable first for British cinema.
The drummer of the pub group in the drinking contest scene is played by author Alan Sillitoe's brother.
The factory scenes were filmed in the same factory that original author Alan Sillitoe worked in during the war when he was making shells and other artillery. At the time of filming, the factory was owned by the Raleigh bicycle company.
The film had to go through some dialogue changes before release, mainly owing to the swear words in the original script. Although 'bastards', 'bloody', and 'bleedin' were allowed the censors refused to pass 'sod', 'christ' and 'bogger' (the latter being a script substitution for 'bugger').
The house used as the filming location for the Seafords' house was owned by Alan Sillitoe, the author of the novel on which the film is based.
The Legion of Decency refused to give the film its seal of approval, thereby affecting the film's chances on American screens.