Sweeney Todd Pearls" and have persisted to the present day. In two books, Peter Haining argued that Sweeney Todd was a historical figure who committed his crimes around 1800. Nevertheless, other researchers who have tried to verify his citations find nothing in these sources to back Haining's claims. A late (1890s) reference to the urban legend of the murderous barber can be found in the poem by the Australian bush poet Banjo Paterson—"The Man from Ironbark". In his 2012 novel" Dodger", Terry Pratchett portrays Sweeney Todd as a tragic figure, having lost his mind after being exposed to the horrors of the
The Tale of Sweeney Todd Ireland. Prior to broadcast, the film had its world premiere at the Hamptons International Film Festival in October 1997. In his review in "New York", John Leonard said, "Much as I’d have imagined that yet another version of "The Tale of Sweeney Todd" would be at best inadvisable, Kingsley... is a class-war wonder to behold... Even more of a surprise than Kingsley’s performance is that director John Schlesinger, so very serious in movies like "Midnight Cowboy" and "Marathon Man", would have so much fun with this blackest of humors." Daryl Miller of the "Los Angeles Times" stated, "It is made