Elephant Boy

Vaugely remembered TV programme from the early 1970s which Tyne Tees television put in the after kids TV slot just before the news.The series centred around Toomai and the love of his life his elephant and was filmed in amazingly garish colour. As I was only 4/5 years old when it was shown the only real part of the programme which sticks in my mind is the ending with Toomai smiling away at the camera as the credits rolled on his painted elephant in a Hindu procession with from what I can remember a cracking Indopop theme tune. Hopefully the complete series remains in a TV archive somewhere so we can have the DVD release with plenty of extras.

Yes I remember it. It was shown in Ireland by RTE which was the only channel we could receive in those days (those on the East Coast of Ireland could pick up UK television, but not us southerners).

I think the elephant's name was Kala Nack or something like it. I loved the theme tune even though it sometimes sounded like it was from an old record which was sticking in the groove.

I can't remember much about the other characters but it was all about the young boy and his elephant - a kind of elephantine version of Lassie with the elephant rescuing people trapped by landslides, fires or from man-eating tigers. Kala Nack and his young master (I think an elephant master in India is known as a mahout, but it was Ceylon (Sri Lanka) I think.)