MR POTTER’S BEAST – An Illustrated talk by Jason Griffiths

In 1968 television dramatist Dennis Potter (above) was already a controversial figure in his native Forest of Dean when a furious row broke out about the subject of his play A Beast With Two Backs. Potter had based the story on a notorious local incident in which an angry mob of villagers chased and killed two performing bears whom they suspected – wrongly – of killing a child and injuring a local woman. 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 before filming had even started. The correspondence provides a fascinating insight into the Forest community’s relationship with the events of eighty years before, and even more so with the playwright Potter himself.

Jason Griffiths is a senior research fellow at the University of Gloucestershire and a recognised authority on the work of Forest writers. A founder of Forest of Dean Community Radio and the Reading The Forest initiative, Jason also helped secure the purchase of papers and materials by Dennis Potter that now form the permanent Potter Archive and Exhibition at the Dean Heritage Museum.

Please note: Admission to this talk is free, but space in our upstairs Gallery is limited. Please make sure of your seat(s) by using the RSVP form below.