BCC EP:128 Secrets of the hoax – real & imagined beasts

Secrets of the hoax – real & imagined beasts


Our first guest Simon Lea had two close encounters with a large
black panther at his farmholding in Oxfordshire. He later created
the life-size metal panther that was positioned in Charlbury in a
large garden close to the station. The ‘panther’ was spotted by
train passengers and sometimes got reported as a real big cat, as
previously discussed on ep 93 of the podcast. We hear the full
story behind the Charlbury Panther from Simon.


Simon has just made a replica Charlbury Panther for the coming
event, Depicting Britain’s Beasts – the art of British big cats,
at Nature in Art gallery, Gloucestershire, 12-22 August,
2025. 


https://natureinart.org.uk/event/depicting-britains-beasts-the-art-of-british-big-cats/?instance_id=977#:~:text=With%20evidence%20from%20DNA%20and,been%20moved%20to%20illustrate%20them.


Our second guest Andy Council is a Bristol based mural painter
and graffiti artist. He discusses three of his British black
panther illustrations which will be at the Nature in Art event in
August. He explains how he came to use British big cats amongst
his public artwork. One of Andy’s paintings is the Five Valleys
Panther, based on big cat sightings in the Stroud area. Andy and
Rick discuss sightings they have heard about in people’s gardens
in that area.  


Andy is interested in awareness raising through his art. He
explains the importance of showing panthers, pumas and lynx in a
British setting, and he describes the challenges of 
depicting a big cat in a modern street-art style.   
  


Word of the week:   tagging


16 July 2025