Kidsgrove is a town in the borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England, on the Cheshire border. It is part of the Potteries Urban Area, along with Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme. It has a population of 26,276. Most of the town is in the Kidsgrove ward, whilst the western part is in Ravenscliffe.
Highley is a large village in Shropshire, England, on the west bank of the River Severn and 7 miles south east of Bridgnorth, the closest cities being Wolverhampton and Birmingham.
Events from the year 1975 in the United Kingdom.
Donald Sumpter is a British actor who has appeared in film and television since the mid-1960s. His credits include Doctor Who episode The Wheel in Space (1968), The Black Panther (1977), Bleak House (1985), The Queen's Nose (1995-1998), Great Expectations (1999), Nicholas Nickleby (2001), Enigma (2001), K-19: The Widowmaker (2002), The Constant Gardener (2005), Being Human (2009-2010), Ultramarines: The Movie (2010), Black Mirror (2011), Game of Thrones (2011-2012), Endeavour (2018), Les Misérables (2018), and Chernobyl (2019).
The Tell-Tale Heart is a 1960 British horror film directed by Ernest Morris and starring Laurence Payne, Adrienne Corri and Dermot Walsh. It was produced by the Danzigers. The screenplay by Brian Clemens and Eldon Howard is a loose adaptation of the 1843 short story of the same name by Edgar Allan Poe. The film was released in England in December 1960, and in the U.S. in February 1962 as The Hidden Room of 1,000 Horrors.
Donald Neilson, alias the "Black Panther", was an English armed robber, kidnapper and murderer. From 1971, he committed a series of robberies of sub-post offices; in 1974, he killed three men during these robberies. In 1975, he kidnapped Lesley Whittle, an heiress from Highley, Shropshire, who died in his captivity. He was arrested later that year, convicted of four counts of murder, and sentenced to life imprisonment in July 1976. Neilson remained in prison until his death in 2011.
Frightmare is a 1974 British horror slasher film directed and produced by Pete Walker, written by David McGillivray and starring Rupert Davies and Sheila Keith. The story focuses around Dorothy and Edmund Yates, who have recently been released from a mental asylum, and is one of Pete Walker's most notable films.
Marjorie Yates is a British actress best known for her role as Carol Fisher in the Channel 4 drama Shameless.
Bathpool Park is a public park in a rural area between Newcastle-under-Lyme and Kidsgrove, Staffordshire. The park became notorious in 1975 as the location for the murder of Lesley Whittle. Lesley's body was found hanging from a steel wire at the bottom of a shaft in the park. Lesley fell or was pushed by a killer known as the Black Panther, Donald Neilson. Neilson was sentenced to life for Whittle's and four other murders, eventually dying as a prisoner in December 2011.
No Orchids for Miss Blandish is a 1948 British gangster film adapted and directed by St. John Legh Clowes from the 1939 novel of the same name by James Hadley Chase. It stars Jack La Rue, Hugh McDermott, and Linden Travers, with unbilled early appearances from Sid James, as a barman, and Walter Gotell, as a nightclub doorman. Due to the film's strong violence and sexual content for its time, amongst other reasons, several critics have called it one of the worst films ever made.
The Unstoppable Man is a 1960 British second feature crime drama film directed by Terry Bishop and starring Cameron Mitchell, Harry H. Corbett, Marius Goring and Lois Maxwell. It is based on the short story Amateur in Violence by Michael Gilbert.
Tomorrow at Ten is a 1962 British second feature thriller film directed by Lance Comfort and starring John Gregson, Robert Shaw and Kenneth Cope. It was written by James Kelley and Peter Miller.
And Now the Screaming Starts! is a 1973 British gothic horror film directed by Roy Ward Baker. It stars Peter Cushing, Herbert Lom, Patrick Magee, Stephanie Beacham and Ian Ogilvy. It is one of the few feature-length horror stories by Amicus, a company best known for anthology or "portmanteau" films. Baker felt the title was "silly".
The Dark Eyes of London is a 1939 British horror film produced by John Argyle and directed by Walter Summers, and starring Béla Lugosi, Hugh Williams, and Greta Gynt. The film is an adaptation of the 1924 novel of the same name by Edgar Wallace. The film is about a scientist named Dr. Orloff who commits a series of murders for insurance money, while periodically disguising himself as the blind manager of a charity to further his scheme.
Wings of Danger is a 1952 British second feature crime film directed by Terence Fisher and starring Zachary Scott, Robert Beatty and Kay Kendall. The screenplay, based on the 1951 novel Dead on Course by Trevor Dudley Smith and Packham Webb, concerns a pilot who is suspected of smuggling. It was released in the United States under its working title of Dead on Course.
Ruth Dunning, born Mary Ruth Dunning, was a Welsh actress of stage, television, and film. Although her year of birth was long given as 1911, her birth was registered in Holywell in 1909.
Whittles is a coach tour operator based in Kidderminster, England.
Tiger by the Tail is a 1955 British second feature ('B') crime thriller film directed by John Gilling and starring Larry Parks, Constance Smith, Lisa Daniely and Donald Stewart. The screenplay was by Gilling and Willis Goldbeck, adapted from the 1942 novel Never Come Back by John Mair.
Murder in the Family is a 1938 British crime film directed by Albert Parker and starring Barry Jones, Jessica Tandy and Evelyn Ankers. The film's sets were designed by the art director Carmen Dillon. It was adapted from a 1936 novel of the same title by James Ronald.
The kidnapping and murder of Lesley Whittle occurred on 14 January 1975. Whittle, a teenage heiress, was kidnapped at gunpoint from her home in Highley, Shropshire, by Donald Neilson; a notorious burglar and murderer known as the Black Panther.
