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.
When Neilson walks into the Kidderminster shopping centre in 1974, the M.E.B. showroom is advertising 'Jubilee Offers' for the Silver Jubilee year of 1977, when the film was made.
English