<P> The tune is reminiscent of change ringing, and the intonation of each line is said to correspond with the distinct sounds of each church's bells . Today, the bells of St. Clement Danes ring out the tune of the rhyme . </P> <P> The song is one of the nursery rhymes most commonly referred to in popular culture . These include George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty - Four (1949), where it is used as a snippet of nursery rhyme which embodies the forgotten past that protagonist Winston Smith yearns for . Various characters contribute snippets of the rhyme as the book goes on, and the last lines figure symbolically into the closing events of the second section . A setting of the full Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book version for choir was written by Bob Chilcott . Entitled "London Bells", it is the third movement of "Songs and Cries of London Town". Benjamin Till composed music based upon the nursery rhyme and it was performed in 2009 at St Mary Le Bow Church, London to honour 150 years of the great bell, Big Ben . In the dystopian future of the video game Half - Life 2 (2004), oranges and lemons can be seen in graffiti on walls as symbols of the Resistance . This is a reference to the poem as it was used in Nineteen Eighty - Four . In Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book (2008), two lesser villains recite the rhyme to summon the man Jack . In the 1963 horror - comedy The Old Dark House, part of the rhyme is heard in a tape recording played backwards while trying to discover the identity of the secret killer . In the film It (2017), it is used as background music throughout the film, when the shape shifting antagonist is near . </P> <P> The rhyme was also altered for the song "Clash City Rockers" by The Clash: </P> <P> You owe me a move say the bells of St. Groove Come on and show me say the bells of Old Bowie When I am fitter say the bells of Gary Glitter No one but you and I say the bells of Prince Far - I No one but you and I say the bells of Prince Far - I </P>

Orange and lemons says the bell of st clement