Ian Holm was originally offered the role of Donald Neilson and agreed to accept providing a meeting of reassurance could be arranged between the family of Lesley Whittle and himself. The Whittle family however had distanced themselves from the film and Holm withdrew from the production.
Although subsequently acclaimed for being a mature and responsible reconstruction of events on its UK home video release in 2012, the film caused such a huge media controversy on its initial release in the UK in 1977 amid claims that it was a sordid exploitation film that many local councils banned the film sight unseen and it was pulled from distribution shortly after its release. Ironically the film briefly touches on the irresponsible reporting by many of those same papers in a feeding frenzy during the Lesley Whittle kidnapping that many blame for causing the death of Donald Neilson's final victim.
Final film of Ruth Dunning.