TV & Media

In Autumn 2022 I went to Nantwich to speak with Ben Miller about the Great Fire of 1583, in which bears were released into the streets, causing havoc among those trying to put out the fire. It so happens that in the Early Modern period—in Shakespeare’s England—bears travelled around the country to fight in town squares and baiting arenas, like the one called Paris Gardens on Bankside in London. Ben was quite surprised to hear that there were once bears running through the streets of his hometown, so we talked about what Nantwich would have been like at the time as a jewel in the North, and how it was rebuilt and regenerated after the fire.