Elephant Boy (TV series)

This article is about the 1973 TV series inspired by a Rudyard Kipling story. For the 1937 film with the same name and based on the same Kipling story, see Elephant Boy (film).

Elephant Boy is a 1973 Australian-British-German series based on the Rudyard Kipling story Toomai of the Elephants.

Elephant Boy
Genre	Adventure / drama
Based on	Toomai of the Elephants by Rudyard Kipling
Directed by	Bill Bain Henri Safran James Gatward Chris McCullough Dennis Vance
Starring	Esrom Jayasinghe Uwe Friedrichsen Isobel Black Alistair Duncan Jeanie Drynan Gunnar Möller Queenie Ashton John Gregg Jack Thompson
Country of origin	Australia / Great Britain / Germany
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	13
Production
Production location	Sri Lanka
Cinematography	Tony Imi
Running time	25 minutes
Production company	Portman Productions / Scottish Television Enterprises
Original release
Network	Seven Network
Release	3 February (1973-02-03) – 10 December 1973 (1973-12-10)

It was shot on location in Sri Lanka from December 1971 to April 1972 and consisted of 13 episodes.^[1]

It aired on Channel Seven in Australia in 1973.^[2]

Synopsis

The story is about 12 year old boy Toomai, his younger brother Ranjit, and their friendship with an elephant called Kala Nag. The brothers have been orphaned, but share a love of animals, which was instilled in them by their father, who was a mahout. Living in a wildlife sanctuary in the jungle of Sri Lanka, Toumai has to contend with the issues between humans and jungle animals.

Cast

• Esrom Jayasinghe as Toomai
• Uwe Friedrichsen as Karl Bergen
• Isobel Black as Kay Stevens
• Margot Leonard as Mrs Weiner
• Janet Kingsbury as Sue Fraser
• Alistair Duncan as Jaffne
• Jeanie Drynan as Jane Shorter
• Gunnar Möller as Dr Scott
• Queenie Ashton as Doreen Graham
• Jeff Ashby as Tom Mitchell
• John Gregg as Burke
• Jack Thompson as Chuck Ryder
• Brigitte Rau as Dr Fleur
• Peter Ragell as Ranjit
• Siegfried Rauch as Buchmeister
• John McCallum as Jack Wilson
• Peter Reynolds as Strang
• Roy Scammell as Ben Thackray
• Neil Fitzpatrick as Harry Slater
• Norman Yemm as Bob Carey
• Peter Gwynne as Rick Madison
• Cecily Polson as Erika Madison
• Tim Elliott as Bill Clift
• Kevin Miles as Prince Paddam
• Ric Hutton as Colonel Shannon