Part of the BBC's celebrated 'Wednesday Play' series of the 1960s, this early work by Dennis Potter is set in an isolated New Forest community in 19th Century Britain. A young local girl is murdered by a mentally disturbed youth, but the villagers blame a stranger, an Italian traveling showman and his bear, rather than see the rot in their own camp.—D.Giddings <darren.giddings@newcastle.ac.uk>
The setting of this play is The Forest of Dean, from where Dennis Potter hails and which is also the setting for the hero's boyhood scenes in "The Singing Detective", not as stated The New Forest. The play is based on a true story that still resonates in the Forest of Dean to this day - be advised if in a Cinderford pub on a Saturday night not to ask who killed the bears!—Brian Tennant