HOW easy is it to get an elephant to Filey, North Yorkshire, from its previous home in Scotland?

Dec 28 2008 by Ian Robson, Sunday Sun

Not very, apparently. Especially when the elephant is on heat.

Big Charlie is the remarkable story of how the largest elephant in captivity — Big Charlie — was moved from Butlin’s Holiday Camp in Ayr, Scotland, 350 miles to the company’s camp in Filey in 1957.

The news story of the time has now been made into a five-part radio show.

The expedition did not go well partly because of Billy Butlin’s hunger for publicity for the stunt and partly because Big Charlie was randy.

A spokesman for the BBC said: “The elephant was accompanied at all times on the journey by his gentle and devoted mahout Shaik Ibrahim.

“But the job was made much more hazardous by the fact that Big Charlie was on “musth” — or in season — and that Billy Butlin’s demands for constant publicity posed problems for all concerned.”

V BIG CHARLIE, BBC Radio 4, Monday to Friday, 3.30pm.