The director Bryan Forbes and Nanette Newman, who played the upstairs neighbor, were husband and wife.
Composer John Barry wrote his score and recorded it whilst the film was being shot and before editing. The director used the music to help inspire him while making the film. Barry did do some revisions to match the final editing of the film, but for the most part the film was edited to his already recorded music.
Winning the Golden Globe for best actress (drama), as well as best actress honors from the BAFTAs, New York Film Critics Circle, National Board of Review and the Berlin Film Festival, Edith Evans was the awards season front-runner for the best actress at the American Oscars. However, in what many felt was a sympathy vote the award went to Katharine Hepburn (who also scored at the BAFTAs) for her role in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)."
The first filmed version was "ITV Play of the Week (1955)"'s , which had produced "The Whisperers (1961)" in 1961, with Nora Nicholson playing Mrs Ross.
Several critics claimed that the film was designed as a covert piece of right-wing propaganda, an attack on the Welfare State brought in by the post-war Labour government. Bryan Forbes denied this, but was well-known to be a supporter of the Conservatives.