Mr Potter and his 'Beast'

In 1968 television dramatist Dennis Potter was already a controversial figure in his native Forest of Dean when for his next play he took as inspiration a notorious local event: the killing of the bears. Such was the potency of this dark moment in Forest history that reaction against Potter’s choice of subject prompted a slew of letters to the local newspapers even before filming had started. This correspondence provides a fascinating insight into the Forest community’s relationship with the events of eighty years before, but even more so with Potter himself.